Geraghty show highlighted how instant stardom can be big curse
THE Graham Geraghty profile on TG4 on Wednesday night really struck a chord.
Very few of the Laochra Gael programmes have connected with me in that way but this one was a bit different.
At the end the interviewer asked Geraghty what he would say if he could go back to offer his younger self some advice.
The reply was instant. “Shut my mouth,” Geraghty said.
It summed the man up for me. The programme was very raw, unbelievably honest and yet, for me, still probably did a slight disservice to the undoubted playing genius that Geraghty was.
Of any player produced by Meath over the last 30 to 40 years, he has generated the most debate and opinion.
Yes, he was different. Yes, he was flawed but all the great players I know were flawed. Yes, he was mouthy. And yes, he was a young man who had some demons that raised their head more than they should have.
But what the show really underlined was the serious challenges facing a young lad of 19 or 20 when catapulted into overnight stardom almost a quarter of a century ago now.
Graham had a short fuse and it was a problem but back in those days he effectively suffered in silence.
I came on to the Meath panel at 18 and within a few years there was back-clapping and adulation to go with the success we had.
You were suddenly in a bubble no one in their wildest dreams how to deal with.
Was Geraghty ready for what followed? No. Where his parents ready? No. Were those close to him equipped? Probably not.
Unlike nowadays, there were no psychologists or consultants at every turn for the welfare of a player. With his personality he found it really hard to deal with what he was in the middle of.
Yet he still evolved into one of the greatest two-footed, all-round footballers I’ve ever seen. His hands, pace, balance, finishing ability, it was all there.
But he had a problem with his mouth and Tommy Dowd’s honesty on the programme was brilliant – he said straight to the camera what many others have said behind Geraghty’s back for many years. That that mouth and a lack of self-discipline at times
Yes, he was flawed but all great ones are
drove team-mates crazy, to the verge of breaking point.
Looking back, Geraghty was like many young superstars in the making, crying out for some help.
It’s why Sean Boylan must take huge credit for getting the best out of this man.
If he had come along 10 years earlier, he mightn’t have seen out the year. That’s how it was back then.
When I came on to the panel in 1983 I was like Geraghty, a bit more flamboyant, a bit cocky.
I wore different clothes, had a different hairstyle and different social outlook. The established players believed I had been sent from Mars.
And when you are a bit different in the GAA, by God do people beat you with that stick.
Graham has been through a lot to get to this point in his life. He has been very misunderstood and also his own worst enemy.
He’s now found his true vocation as a great social worker and is an incredibly obliging man. That should be his legacy now.