Shields happy to have come full circle

TWELVE months on after his return from Australia and Michael Shields’ life radiates a warm glow.

The Cork senior footballers are in rude health, the St Finbarrs senior footballers are in rude health, and the full-back anchoring both teams is quietly satisfied with how 2009 has panned out.

This time last year he was just back from Down Under, the lure of home and football having prompted him to ditch his AFL life with Carlton. But Shields follows the Noel Gallagher mantra of not gazing at the past in rage, and instead focuses on surfing the current good waves. A blockbuster All-Ireland semi-final against Tyrone was the type of occasion he wanted to be involved in, the moment he touched down on Irish soil last year.

“The motivation to come back was to be involved in games like this. Big time. Like last year when I was back for the All-Ireland semi-final games against Kerry, I was on the bench. That was fierce frustrating watching it. So I made a few goals with myself at the start of this year. I wanted, come the summer, to be in that starting 15 and to be there in the parade before the game. I’m really looking forward to facing Tyrone now.”

But it has taken hours of graft and toil for him to get back to this stage. When he came back playing Gaelic football last year, he felt like a man fumbling around in a dark room looking for a light switch. The ball was bouncing away from him, his handling was letting him down and he was struggling for that burst from the blocks to keep pace with livewire attackers. Over the winter he knuckled down and got to work.

“I’ve always said that when I came back from Australia, I was all over the place. Especially last year when I came on against Kildare in the quarter-final. The hop of the ball, the spin of the ball, everything about my game wasn’t up to intercounty standard. So I did a lot of work on the side to keep going. I constantly tried to bring a ball with me everywhere, just to get back into the swing of things.”

Shields also felt his physique needed an overhaul. The gruelling weight sessions he’d undertaken in Australia had bulked up his body, but returning to Gaelic football he felt he was lugging around extra weight and that it was compromising his speed and sharpness. So while the rest of the Cork panel went about the customary intercounty practice of bulking up, Shields’ mission statement was to slim down.

“I always said that in the full-back line when you’re marking small, quick fellas that you need to be really sharp. You don’t need all that bulk in the full-back line. If you were at midfield it’s a different story, but not back in defence. One thing I really struggled with when I came back was the quick turn of a forward who I was marking. It wasn’t that I was slow, I was just getting caught a small bit with that quick turn.

“I said to myself this year that I had to drop weight. So I laid off the weight sessions. Over in Australia I was doing weights four or five times a week but last winter I only did one weights session a week. I spoke with the dietician as well, watched my diet a bit more and ate a bit less.

“The way to go really was to focus more on fitness and football for me, than strength work. Aidan O’Connell is our conditioning coach and he helped me a lot. He set out a specific programme for me and I lost about 10kg. That was a big help and I feel way better playing this year, than those matches last August.”

The benefits of his work were visible throughout the spring. In February he nullified Meath’s Cian Ward, in March he blotted out Ross Munnelly of Laois and in April he held Armagh’s attacking totem Ronan Clarke scoreless. His aspiration was to translate that form through to the summer and while he accepts that Michael Murphy was difficult to shut down in the All-Ireland quarter-final, he feels he’s maintained the high standards of earlier in the season.

“Michael Murphy is a serious upcoming talent and he’s been difficult for anyone to mark this year. I had a bad 15-minute spell in the Donegal game and some people got on my back. But that comes with the territory and you have to accept that. It’s the most cut-throat position in the game. Obviously last year coming back I was all over the place with it, but this year I’ve had a good run at it and I’m happy enough how the year has gone for me.”

Sunday will bring the most searching test of the year and Shields is acutely aware of that. Stephen O’Neill has been is mesmeric form for Tyrone this season and posed a formidable threat. Yet Shields is in a positive mood.

“I’m looking forward to it. These are the games you want to play in, marking the best players of the game in Stephen O’Neill and Owen Mulligan. You want to test yourself against the best. Look, Tyrone are a savage team and their forwards are absolutely class. But I’ve Anthony (Lynch) on one side of me and it’s a great boost to have him back, and on the other side is Ray (Carey), who looks after his corner and gets on with the job brilliantly. Quirkie behind is a great leader. So I think we’re ready for this.”