The wait is almost over for the Cork and Tipperary hurlers but for the Kerry and Donegal footballers, a defining week stretches out ahead. Managing the next seven days will be a factor in where Sam Maguire ends up this year.
I was fortunate enough to experience several All-Ireland finals and handling the build-up is something you get better at with experience.
I always tried to keep my preparation consistent – game by game, week by week. Everything remained the same. So, when it came to the All-Ireland final, even though it was such a big occasion, it felt no different. My preparation was unchanged.
That was the plan, anyway. But it’s easier said than done.
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The night before the 2016 All-Ireland final sticks out. I was living at home at the time and I remember trying to watch a movie but people just kept coming in and out of the room. They all meant well but the more it happened, the more frustrated I got. Eventually, I just lost my s**t with everybody.
It was a case of all the pressure that had been building up over several days getting released in that moment. Afterwards, the whole episode was playing back in my mind and I didn’t enjoy seeing that side of myself.
I went out the next day against Mayo and played quite poorly. I scored four points but I think I missed three frees and in general, I didn’t play to my standards.
The game finished in a draw and the following afternoon I sat down with Gary Keegan. Gary is currently with the Lions in Australia as a performance coach and he is also helping the Cork hurlers. Back in 2016, he was performing a similar role with the Dublin footballers.
I just explained to him what had happened the night before the game and he was able to defuse the whole situation for me. He basically said: “Your family have your best interest at heart and they are just trying to talk about the game, so give them that time and then respectfully ask for your space."
We worked on a couple of things like that throughout the week and I was a lot more relaxed in the build-up to the replay. As it turned out, I performed a lot better in the second game too.
You learn so much from those experiences and I was able to lean on 2016 to help me ahead of subsequent finals.
More than anything, what I started to understand was that confidence comes from your preparation. It all centres on the things you can control as a footballer. You can’t control the amount of flags and bunting around the county and you can’t control the excitement of supporters.
But you can control your preparation. It’s important not to go off course and do something different. Lads can end up doing crazy things in the week before an All-Ireland final, so you really need to strip it all back and just repeat what you had been doing before the quarter-final and semi-final. What got you to the final is going to be good enough.
I’m reminded of a story about the great Eamonn Coghlan before the 1,500 metre final at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal. He shaved his legs the night before the race but then had trouble sleeping because they itched so much.
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Don’t change your preparation. Stay consistent.
In that regard, the two-week gap between the semi-final and final is probably better for players too – it allows teams to maintain their battle rhythm.
I always enjoyed this weekend – one week out – because usually we had a mini-training camp. It changed from year to year. We might have gone down to Carton House for a Friday-Saturday camp or maybe just based ourselves in DCU. It allowed you to focus on your gameplan, but also to relax as you were away from the outside world and safely within the bubble of the group.
I used to feel that was a really nice and refreshing experience – training with your teammates and preparing for an All-Ireland final. It was everything you’d ever wanted as a kid.
You can’t live in your bedroom and hide away from the world for the rest of the two weeks either – you have to go about your business normally. Inevitably that means people will want to talk to you about the game.
Everybody means well, but they might not be saying the right things to you in terms of your mental preparation – stuff like “you’re definitely going to win" or queries about what the celebrations might be like the week after the game.
To combat against that, I always had a stock answer ready – a generic line that brought me back to the moment and didn’t let me drift. It would generally be something along the lines of, ‘I’m really looking forward to the game, I’m going to work as hard as I can and we’ll see what happens’.
You have to try enjoy the build-up too, because you’ve worked so hard for so many years to play in an All-Ireland final. That realisation also comes with experience.
After I moved out of home, I enjoyed going down to mum and dad’s house the day before the game and getting my good luck cards and so on. Then I’d go back to my house and be in my own little bubble for the evening.
Over time, I came to realise that by the Saturday I had done everything possible in terms of my preparation. If it wasn’t to be for me at Croke Park the following afternoon and I didn’t perform well, it wouldn’t be down to my preparation. That gave me a great source of confidence.
The mornings of those All-Ireland finals were always great. You’d arrive at the Gibson Hotel and meet the rest of the players. You’d start chatting with lads, play table tennis or computer games, there was an air of excitement around the place. They were memorable times.
But it is the hurlers of Cork and Tipperary who will get to experience one of the most special days in sport this Sunday. And then a special, defining week stretches ahead for the Kerry and Donegal footballers.
Some of these players might never get another opportunity to play in an All-Ireland final. I wish all of them well.
