Micheál Quirke: The importance of the GAA sub

It wasn’t all that long ago that Gaelic football was told to contact its solicitor, get its affairs in order. 

Death was only around the corner apparently. But that talk has skulked away and subsided quicker than Joe Brolly did last weekend after making that wholly inappropriate joke about Marty Morrissey live on air.

Two rip-roaring, high-quality Ulster championship games in as many weeks have raised both the pulse and the expectations for the season ahead.

Monaghan’s win on Sunday was as fiercely contested as we thought it would be, with the result being determined by one of the most underappreciated elements of Gaelic games; bench play.

In NBA basketball, one of their most prestigious end of season awards is the ‘Sixth man of the Year’.

That accolade has been given out since the early 80s and recognises the league’s most valuable player coming off the bench as a substitute (or sixth man). In the GAA, we have no such award, but given how impactful if underappreciated the role of the substitute remains, it’s probably time we start giving them more than just empty platitudes.

In every team in sports, all players want to start. That’s the nature of the beast. It’s the job of management, along with senior players, to create a positive culture within the group, to ensure that players who are on the bench feel as involved and valued as those with starting jerseys.

It’s a difficult ask to develop that kind of team atmosphere where guys are willing to buy into the concept of what’s best for the group, ahead of what’s best for themselves. Sacrificing one’s own ego for the good of the collective is key to developing strong play off the bench.

I was a position I regularly found myself in with Kerry, with number 20 on my back, anxiously checking the clock and waiting for the nod from the gaffer. In truth, it wasn’t the role, but the responsibility of it that I enjoyed most.

You see, the role of the substitute in the GAA is still one that is misunderstood and carries a stigma of inequality. The idea that subs are there only for steak dinners and free gear is a popular misnomer.

You’re never going to have guys from numbers 16-30 on the county panel driving sponsored motors or starring in the Lucozade commercials, and that’s fair enough. But they rarely receive much in the way of media glare either, which I find intriguing, given how significant their role is in relation to the result.

Like we witnessed last Sunday, and on countless other occasions in recent years, the subs are often the ones who decide the result of big games by how they perform in the final quarter.

I always thought it was about your mindset, and how it was sold to you by the bainisteoir. But I probably looked at it differently to most guys, I never stayed pissed off for long with management for not starting me.

I didn’t sulk. I was never an energy vampire around the place, bitching about not getting a fair crack. I approached it by accepting that they were showing huge trust and faith in me to be one of the guys to close out the game. Everybody knew that when I stepped on the pitch, I became our kick-out target. I saw that as a privileged position to be entrusted with when the game was on the line.

Monaghan’s Conor McManus and Clare’s Gary Brennan were the blue chip performers of the weekend. McManus further establishing himself into the conversation as one of the best scorers in our game while Brennan would be a footballer of the year candidate if he was from a county that made a deeper run into the summer.

But, for all McManus’s accuracy and leadership, I couldn’t see Monaghan winning that game without the introduction of their substitutes and the impact they made. Stephen Gollogly, Colin Walsh and Dick Clerkin in particular brought a calm assuredness to their teammates that only comes with the experience of being there before.

They wanted to get on ball, got big scores, and brought an energy and a high football IQ to the most frantic period of the game and led their team home.

Liverpool’s David Fairclough would have been regarded as the original ‘super-sub’ back in the 70s and 80s. Manchester United supporters would be more familiar with the more recent exploits of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, who will forever be remembered by supporters for that famous night in ’99 when he and Teddy Sheringham were sprung from the bench to steal the Champions League away from Bayern Munich in the dying embers of the final in Barcelona. The anniversary was yesterday, by the by.

Closer to home, successful Kerry teams have always had punch coming off the bench to close out big games. Remember that iconic Maurice Fitzgerald side-winder from the touchline against Dublin in 2001 down in Thurles, the one with Tommy Carr screaming in his face? He was wearing 17 on his back that day and had only just been introduced.

That was back when the Dubs were still allowed to travel outside the Pale. Or how about Donaghy’s explosion from the bench against Mayo in last year’s Croke Park comeback, or Kieran O’Leary’s ice water in his veins… how’s that for impact?

Kevin McManamon, Dean Rock, Cormac Costelloe and Denis Bastick, among others, have provided Dublin with an impressive cavalry in recent years that has won them more games that it has lost them.

Pace, power and finishing against weary defenders in the last 10 minutes.

Look at what Cork could potentially be bringing from the stands this season: Donnacha O’Connor, Daniel Goulding, Alan O’Connor, and Paddy Kelly are all guys with a proven pedigree who can turn a game with their ability and experience.

I wouldn’t be as quick as some to write off Cork as a beaten docket with that kind of back-up.

All successful teams need bang from the bench. Watch out for those inglorious substitutes from your county this summer, they won’t be driving 151 reg cars — but they may just be the reason you’re planning trips to Dublin in August and September.

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