Micheál Martin: Soccer background gave me tools to thrive as a goalkeeper

TALKING SHOP: Cork’s Mícheál Martin admits that being vocal with outfield team-mates is not something that would have come naturally to him and it was as a goalkeeper with College Corinthians where this element of goalkeeping was coached into him. Picture: Harry Murphy/Sportsfile

Cork’s Micheál Martin says his soccer background equipped him with the communication skills required for inter-county goalkeeping.

Martin, who this Saturday begins his second All-Ireland Championship as Cork’s first-choice No. 1, admits that being vocal with outfield team-mates is not something that would have come naturally to him and it was as a goalkeeper with College Corinthians where this element of goalkeeping was coached into him.

“My background is actually soccer, in goal, and soccer would probably be a bit ahead of GAA in terms of the underage coaching. Communication is one thing they’d be constantly pinging you on, even as a 12, 13-year-old,” Martin recalled of his early goalkeeping education.

“It wasn’t something that was natural to me as a child. They actually would judge you on it a lot in soccer, so I am lucky I had that background and got exposure to that coaching at a young age. I would like to think I carried it through a bit.”

Such was the frequency at which Westmeath were getting through for scores in the recent Division 2 relegation semi-final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, a central component of Martin’s job that afternoon was identifying areas where Westmeath were making forward gains and communicating such to the red shirts in front of him.

His view of defending is certainly a nuanced one, remarking that defensive problems are rarely as simplistic as those on the outside make out.

“It is easy for people to look at a game and say, ‘it was this position or it was that position, Cork weren’t strong there and that is why they were conceding so much’, when the reality is it is a collective. You have to defend as a 15 now.

“Teams work so hard on transition, back to front, that if you give the ball away sloppily on the opposition 45 and your forwards aren’t ready to react to the opposition runners... it is not as simple as saying, ‘oh, a couple of the middle positions at the back’ and ‘why wasn’t the keeper talking’. It is much more of a group effort than that.”

After a couple of seasons spent as understudy to Ken O’Halloran and more recently Mark White, Martin has been between the sticks for all bar one of Cork’s last 12 League and Championship outings.

“I would never say (I am) settled because the competition is too strong. I would never feel settled in the jersey in that sense, but just the more games you play against good opposition at this level the more comfortable you get.

“When you are coming across the top teams, there are huge learnings every time. It is just that exposure to higher intensity games and better prepared teams in terms of kickout defence. That is the biggest benefit to (regular game-time).

“The more you play, the better you get. It is one of the difficulties if you are on the panel and not getting game-time, you might be missing club as well.

“That’s something I found as a younger player that there would have been a couple of seasons where I was halfway between both. But now that I am getting games at this level, that is what it is all about.”