Back-to-basics approach has Ian Maguire enjoying football again
TRUE BLUE: St Finbarr's Ian Maguire who play Nemo Rangers in the Cork SFC final at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday. Pic: Eddie O'Hare
Individual questions asked silently and collective questions asked out loud. Neither comfortable, neither carrying straightforward answers.
Ian Maguire admits to massively enjoying the past eight weeks in blue. Nothing won, but there’s appreciation for the journey having been good fun, particularly when recent journeys in blue have not always ticked that box.
The 31-year-old is in a good place. That’s neither a statement nor an opinion. Rather, it is fact. Recent performances offer overwhelming evidence.
Against Ballincollig last time out, the Barrs midfielder was fouled for a first-half converted free, assisted a second-half 1-2, and claimed three opposition restarts in the same second period.
In the quarter-final a fortnight earlier, he had a hand in five of the six goals that sank champions Castlehaven. He started and finished the opener. Won the opposition kickout that led to the second. Broke the opposition kickout that led to the fourth. His saved-on-the-line-shot brought about the fouling of possession that presented Steven Sherlock with their penalty fifth. And finally, assisted their sixth.
The 31-year-old came into the year not in a great place. He tore both his quads and wasn’t in a position to attempt a full 70 minutes with Cork until the Round 5 hammering at home to Roscommon on March 1.
Being held at the startline of a new campaign wasn’t conducive to a mind already weighed down with insecurities. He wanted to be on the field rebuilding confidence. He was instead confined to the gym ruminating with his thoughts.
“I would have had a lot of doubts from the previous two years, the way I finished with the club, kinda thinking, was I good enough,” Maguire reveals.
“The last couple of years, it was just frustrating. And maybe the rules were a factor in that, but it was just tough coming off the last couple of years, even though you are so close with your club.
“And with Cork, when you feel you are kind of getting there, kind of getting there, and then you are getting tough losses. The Louth loss in 2023, that was a low. Then coming back with the club and losing again.
“I have always been available too, and then I got an injury. It was just a frustrating couple of months, and maybe that just accumulated. It is something every player probably goes through at different points of their career.”
Cork decamped to Portugal between Rounds 5 and 6 of the League. Rooming with Mitchelstown’s Seán Walsh found entertainment in plentiful supply. And out on the manicured training lawns of the Quinta do Lago resort, Maguire found confidence and self-belief.
“I just felt it grew a small bit from there. Found a bit of form and took it from there. The big thing was I brought it back to basics.”
The latter approach was amplified when returning to the local stage.
“I learned going back with the club to just take the pressure off myself. The lads, the management, helped me with that, just trying to embrace playing football and not worry about things. That has helped me.”
Collectively, though, the semi-final shortcomings of the previous two years had fed a pressure to ask questions of each other and the group at large.
Maguire insists there is no right way to lose but does acknowledge in the same breath that on the afternoon of their 2022 extra-time All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Kilcoo, the Barrs died with boots on. That game is used as a reference point because they died far less gallantly in the county final defeat to Nemo later that year, as well as the semi-final defeats to Castlehaven in either of the subsequent two Octobers.
“There is probably no argument that we haven't played our best football on the days we have lost, but we have to give credit to the opposition as well, they put us in that position.
“That was the internal questions that we had to ask ourselves as players; what are we doing wrong, are we performing on the big day, and how can we get back to the level of playing our best? And if our best is good enough, we'll win, and if it is not, we'll accept that.”
In Maguire’s typically candid fashion, he says he did not deliver his best in the county final disappointment of three years ago at the hands of tomorrow's opponents. The search for a third county medal in blue continues.
“What's the phrase; one lucky, two flukey, three consistent. We are in a county final again after thinking for the last two years would we ever get back there again.”
One last black and green question to answer.
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