PARSONS THE EMBODIMENT OF RESILIENCE MAYO EXHIBIT
From exile to the All-Ireland, the midfield maestro has come good on his family vow
THE second coming of Tom Parsons serves as a reminder that a man’s word is his bond.
If resilience has become the word that has been used to explain the wonder of a Mayo football team that refuses to die, then perhaps no individual embodies that quality quite like their 29-year-old Charlestown midfielder.
While the football nation scratches its head at Mayo’s refusal to bow the knee after serial disappointment, the wonder is that Parsons managed to pick up the threads of an inter-county career that had been sheared by James Horan when he assumed the mantle of leadership of the team in 2011.
Prior to that, Parsons was considered the future of Mayo football; he made his debut in 2008 as a teenager and yet inside four years he was not only out of the panel, he was out of the country.
Left out in the football cold, he moved to Cardiff in 2012 to take up an engineering position and yet he has defied rejection and emigration to face into a highlyanticipated All-Ireland final against Dublin this Sunday.
And so profound has been his impact that the growing consensus is that he is also just one more big game from what would be a first All Star.
‘I have a very close relationship with my father Tom and mother Carmel and when I was released from the panel in 2011, I remember saying to them that I will play for Mayo again.
‘And you know, I had made a verbal contract with them at that stage and you don’t forget words like that,’ he explains.
That might explain when Horan opened a narrow window in 2014, he chose to leap right through it.
His commitment to Charlestown was such that he kept flying across the Irish Sea and he was their driving force in 2012 when they won the county and Connacht title, which put him back on the radar.
Yet, it was not until Horan’s final season that he proffered the invite to re-join and even then it was hardly one that was too good to turn down.
He was included in an extended panel, flying back to the disputable charms of the FBD League, but hung in there even when there seemed little point.
Horan’s lack of faith in Parsons was evidenced by the fact that he only made two starts in 2014, an opening-round League defeat to Kildare and a dead-rubber final round match against Derry.
There was enough in that to nourish doubts in the most tunnel-minded heads, but Parsons never even blinked and, if anything, the experience has only served to make him appreciate what he has.
‘I think every athlete can have doubts and you turn and face those. But to return and play for Mayo was always on my priority list, and so maybe getting released from the squad; I certainly really appreciate at this stage of my career how valuable and precious it is to represent your county and to put on the Mayo jersey. And it doesn’t last forever. ‘As a player or athlete, we are only a game away or an injury away from our last game with our county. I am 29 years old and one big injury could finish my career. ‘That is a reality I have learned maybe from being released from the panel in the past and it is a reality that also comes with age.’ Football brought Parsons home for good in May, 2014, when he relocated to his company’s Dublin office, but it was a decision that was not taken lightly. ‘I had to convince my partner Carol to leave and to give up her job in the UK and follow me back to Ireland to pursue my dream. ‘There was a lot on the cards and it was maybe a risk to take when both of us had a career and life set up in the UK to come back and play for Mayo.
‘But it is absolutely worth it every time you pull on that jersey with the magic support we have. I have absolutely no regrets,’ added Parsons, who admitted that he would not have been able to resume his inter-county career without the support of his fiancée, who he marries this December.
‘Life moves on and the older you get the more responsibilities you have with family and work and so forth. It is hugely difficult on Carol, but in fairness she has massive patience and gives me massive support. And I think at this level that GAA players do need a strong support network around them and I can tell you that if their partner isn’t invested in it, then it isn’t going to work.
‘I suppose I am blessed that Carol is invested in it and has the patience of a saint and supports me with all this time training and playing games. And this season has been a real test of character.’
It is a test that both he and his team have passed.
If Parsons is in a rush to make up for lost time then it is understandable; ten years after making his debut in a League match against Derry, Sunday will be just his 71st competitive appearance, and his 29th in Championship.
But what he has lost in quantity, he has made up for in quality and he has become one of the main reasons why Mayo has survived a marathon nine-game slog through the summer.
His second-half performance in their opening qualifier clash with Derry was one of the main reasons why they escaped that evening after extra-time, and he has maintained that form right through the summer months.
But he also believes that tight scrapes like the Derry, allied to a hectic Championship schedule that will make Sunday’s final their 10th game of the campaign, has been the making of them.
‘It is great to play the quantity of games we played. What you learn in games is key.
‘In one respect it was like having a National League campaign in the middle of the summer. It has been fantastic. As a player that’s what you want to do.
‘You want to play in Croke Park in as many games as possible in the year and that has been magical to have as many games this year.’
‘I made a verbal contract with them’