Lacey: Players devoted to their cause

It was from O’Neill’s pub in Vilamoura harbour on this weekend last year that Karl Lacey watched the All-Ireland final.

Unlike the rest of the patrons in the hostelry, he didn’t view it on its own merits but how it applied to him. He’d seen the semi-finals and deduced the teams weren’t “world beaters”.

He had timed his holiday with the final “to get out of the country”, when the build-up would have been difficult. Only a piece of the hype brought itself to him.

“There was a Dublin wedding over and they were singing. It was a hard place to be. One or two were over chatting. You are sitting there and watching and saying to yourself ‘we can be there’.”

At the time, life was changing for Lacey. He and his girlfriend Ciara weren’t yet expecting baby Noah but the four-time All-Star had taken the plunge to change career, leaving Ulster Bank for a masters degree in sports performance in UL. Others like Kerry captain Fionn Fitzgerald and bank colleague, Kilkenny hurler Michael Fennelly, completed the one-year course in 2013.

He doesn’t know where it will bring him but he’s content with his decision.

“I have a thesis to write up now. I have to have it in by December. It’s a balancing act, trying to fit it around football. It’s an area I’m really interested in. I left Ulster Bank.

“I have to meet the supervisor but I’m doing it (the thesis) around GPS. I’m not fully sure what way I’m going to go with it. I was hoping to look at demands of an in inter-county player by comparison to a club player, measuring two weeks of training sessions with the vests.”

That Donegal sub keeper Michael Boyle also enrolled in the course made life a lot easier for Lacey. The pair would share driving duties on the eight-hour commutes. Driving through Gort, Claregalway, Tuam, Knock, Charlestown, Sligo and on pass Ballyshannon, it was no picnic. “Not too many motorways around there!”

Few training sessions were missed. Lacey’s attendance numbers are well up this year on last season when he was riddled with injuries. “Earlier on in the season, I would come up on a Thursday. Once we hit April/May, I had to try and get up for as many sessions as I could. There is no other way around it. I headed down on a Sunday evening, have a class on Monday, class on Tuesday then head back up the road for training at around 2pm on a Tuesday, back down on a Wednesday morning, back up on a Thursday. There is no other way around it. I spoke to lecturers in UL, it’s a sports course and they understand what it takes.”

The arrival of baby Noah last month came as Donegal were training in Johnstown House in Meath. Lacey was with Ciara in Letterkenny Hospital when their little bundle of joy was born on the night of Friday, August 22.

He then drove the three hour 40 minute journey through the night to join up with his team-mates. Driving, as you can guess, is no big deal for Lacey.

“Ciara went into hospital on the Wednesday and we had the baby on Friday and the boys were away, so it was kind of hard juggling both. ‘Should I go down to the boys or should I stay around the hospital?’ and in fairness to Jim (McGuinness) and Paul McGonigle, they were great support, and they told me to stay where I was.

“The baby was born at 11pm so I drove down to the boys in Johnstown House through the night and trained on Saturday morning. I suppose you are on a high and things are good. It kept me going all week. I suppose in my own head, if I miss training I’m thinking about it and putting doubts into my head. I was tired training that Saturday morning but I had the whole day to lie around and catch up on my sleep. It was a good weekend overall!”

The niggling injuries haven’t left him but he manages to keep them at arm’s length now. There was his hip problem a few years ago and his hamstrings continue to annoy. Against Armagh in the quarter-final, he played on with a torn hamstring after doing the damage just 10 minutes into the game. “I had a light wee tear in the hamstring again and I was playing a sweeper role anyway, so it’s a role that I could get away with it. I didn’t have to do any full out sprints so I could have got away with it. I recovered again and felt good against Dublin so I have another two or three weeks ahead of me.”

Having turned 30 earlier this month, Lacey is nearing the end of his career. His body may be trying to tell him that but when Michael Murphy did the rounds last year convincing players to stick with it for one more year, Lacey was already converted. It was about coaxing other team-mates to stay on.

“Mentally, I felt fresh and I always wanted to give it a big push. My own (2012) season was disappointing. It was getting around to the other guys. If one or two men left, it might have been a different story. We wanted every man on board. Having Jim on board was massive as well. He has brought us so far.

“Every man has bought into everything that he has done with us from day one. We’re just happy in the position we’re in.”

Only one of a few reasons why Lacey wears the widest grin right now.