THE GRIFF WITH THE SMOOTH
Tony’s goal is to make players comfortable in their own skin
TONY GRIFFIN is in his “final twist” as Kerry’s performance coach.
The score in the eyes of the Kingdom public lies at 1-1.
And this year is the Allireland decider for Griffin, boss Jack O’connor (inset) and his coaching team.
But that’s not how Griffin, who moved his family to Kerry last year from Kildare due to the commute involved, views it.
It’s not All-ireland or bust. “It is and it isn’t,” says the former Clare All-star hurler, speaking at the launch of the
22nd season of
Laochra Gael.
“It depends on what level. It’s not a success for them
(Kerry players if they don’t win the All-ireland) because they want that feeling that they had in ‘22.
“They want that sense of, ‘We’ve won it’ but unless they’re alright on the inside, no number of All-irelands is going to give them the happiness or joy that I’d like them to have in life.
“You look at today and Laochra Gael, a lot of players have multiple All-irelands but they’re miserable or they’re deeply unhappy with their life circumstances or whatever it might manifest as.
“I’d love them to win the All-ireland for them because I know what it means to them.
“But if they win it, but they haven’t developed as people then that’s not full success. It’s partial success for me.”
Griffin learned his skills involved in the late Jim Stynes’ ‘Reach’ programme in Australia, and brought them back to Ireland with his own ‘Soar’ initiative for secondary school children.
He’s applied many of the same principles to his work with teams such as Dublin hurlers, Kildare footballers and Kerry over the last decade.
“The funny thing was, everything I did with Kildare and Dublin, I learned from working with Jim Stynes and teenagers,” he explains.
“In terms of the sessions with the players, we really just strip it back to the humanity of the thing.
“‘Okay, you’re David Clifford but what does it feel like to watch your Mam dying?’
“Or you’re someone else, ‘What does it feel like to watch your best friend suffering from a depression that you can’t help him out of ?’
“You strip things back to that level and that’s not easy to do.
“It takes a certain subtlety but I learned that from working with teenagers and young people over 10 years.”
Speaking about Clifford’s mental strength, Griffin continued: “I think some people are born with certain things. David Clifford was born to be David Clifford.
“He’s just ice cold. The other part of it is, he’s a young man. He’s 24.
“Last year was a big, big mental load for any human being. I don’t care who you are.
“You can only push things away so much and try to perform and the All-ireland final showed probably that David has areas of his game that need work.
“And maybe it’s getting parts of his game where the mental and the skill intersect.
“But that’s brilliant. That’s good news because everyone says he’s the complete player. He knows he’s not.
“And he knows his ‘complete’ is different to most other people’s complete. But that’s what he’s after.
“It’s Michael Jordan-esque. It’s, how can I perform?
“Last year was a hard year for him. He’s an exceptional person.”