Meyler’s guidance helps Dad
IF HIS sporting career path didn’t culminate in wearing the captain’s armband for the Republic of Ireland’s World Cup qualifier against Wales last October, David Meyler could well have been togging out at Páirc Uí Chaoimh for his father John tomorrow afternoon in the first round of the Munster hurling championship.
His dad, the Cork manager, offers an intriguing insight into the underage career of a player who has over 100 Premier League appearances, not to mention being a YouTube gaming sensation with a following of 324,000. Turns out, he did a job back in the day on a player who is a threetime All Star corner-back. ‘He is good. He played in the primary game in 2002 against Waterford and scored 2-2. He was playing [on] Noel Connors. I have the programme.
‘Actually in goals that day, and this is something you probably wouldn’t know and wouldn’t think — Aidan Walsh was in goal for the Under-12 team that day. So I keep those and I would go back and I look, even with the soccer reserve matches, whatever, and I’d see who was playing and just check. ‘Ah, he was good.’ While that was all of 16 years ago now, he has vivid memories still. ‘In 2002, the day Cork played Waterford in Thurles and Tony Browne got a goal from 60 yards out over on the far sideline.’
Could David have played for Cork? ‘Ah sure, I just said to his mother the other day — I was at a hurling match yesterday, Blackrock were playing Carrigtwohill and I just came home and I just said to her, “do you know, if he hadn’t gone to England, he would have been playing in that.”
‘There is sometimes a little bit more romantic notions about playing GAA than there is about soccer. Soccer is different. The professional sport is different. It’s cruel. There is no let up. It’s a business and you are forgotten about in five minutes. That’s it.
‘He hasn’t been offered a new contract with Hull and he’ll move on and that’s it, thank you very much. That’s the way it is.’
As someone with a wealth of managerial experience, be it with Kerry, Carlow, Wexford or taking over from Kieran Kingston this season to manage Cork, John has tried to tap in to 28-year-old David’s knowledge of the professional game, particularly with the matches coming thick and fast in the new round-robin.
‘Forget about it the minute it is over,’ was the pro’s advice. ‘Forget about it at 5pm when the game is over. That’s really it.
‘That is about the first element of professionalism I’ve seen within the GAA. You play the match against Clare, the match could be over at 4pm or whatever — then you forget about it, you focus on your next match. Thirty seconds later you move on.
‘You’ve probably spent the last 20 years looking back on the games that you’ve lost. Certainly this won’t be the case now.’
Given David’s career arc, which is the best pathway – professional or amateur?
‘The best is when you are 16 and 17 and you pick the right choice and David just happened to go across and Sunderland wanted him at the time.
‘There is no romance in professional sport. It’s about business. It’s about making money. It’s about pocketing the money and coming out of it at 32, 33, 34 - he’s doing his badges in Dublin, his UEFA ‘B’ License.
‘It’s what you really want yourself at the time. He really wanted to go and play soccer. He really wanted to go to England and he wanted to play soccer for Ireland. That was his goal, and his ambition and he fulfilled that.’
He sees the near professional demands the packed new roundrobin schedule will put on players and management with Cork playing four matches in five weekends.
Linked to that is the huge level of finance needed at board level to cover inter-county running costs and demands which is why Meyler sees the importance of the new Cork supporters club Cairde Chorcaí, and the pre-Christmas fund-raiser in San Francisco. ‘A lot of counties don’t have that resource generation that Cork, Dublin, Tipperary, Kerry would have. It’s critical for every county that money is found. If management want extra things – psychologists – there are numerous little things that arise. Cork county board have been superb in that. Everything is available, everything is free. Everything is put there as much as possible to generate Cork teams winning. But you have eight Cork teams competing every year — minor, under-21, intermediate and senior. So there is a huge stress on revenue within the county. If there are other sources of revenue out there then they should be tapped.’
HE accepts that it’s a slightly worrying model for the GAA, that a huge level of finance is needed to keep pace. ‘It’s survival of the fittest, the survival of those who can generate the most income from outside resources, from advertising. Dublin’s relationship with AIG and that. You look at Man City in the Premier League who can buy the most players for 50, 60, 75 million [pounds]. That’s really it. It’s a race to the top, a race to the bottom, whatever way you look at it?
‘In today’s environment you’re judged on success. If you don’t win, you’re a failure, it’s as simple as that. We all want to be successful. You look at every other county’s model – where are they generating the revenue? Try and keep pace with them. Some counties are football or hurling only. Some counties are dual. So there is double demands on county boards.’
He sees so much to excite in the new format of the Munster Championship. As for David’s plans for the summer? ‘If we are in the Munster [final] he’ll be in Thurles. He was there last year for the Munster final. He absolutely loves the hurling.’
Like father, like son.