‘I don’t think they understood what I was giving up back here. I grew up dreaming of playing with Tyrone’ – McShane
TYRONE ace Cathal McShane is convinced he made the right decision to turn down a switch to the AFL and believes his suitors, the Adelaide Crows, didn’t fully grasp what they were asking him to leave behind.
Around the turn of the year,
McShane was offered the chance at a professional career in the AFL. And while he admits he was tempted by the opportunity, the current All-Star full-forward eventually found the lure of home too strong.
“I made my decision based on what was present in my life,” McShane told the Irish Independent as he continues to rehab an dislocated ankle. “And I was very happy, happy with how last year went. And even with the club you can see the future is bright there too.
“But what I was saying was I was giving up a lot to leave Tyrone and go to Australia. And I kind of thought maybe they didn’t understand that, that maybe they thought they’d the professional environment out there and they pay players and that that should be enough to persuade anyone.
“But I don’t think they understood what I was giving up back here. I grew up dreaming of playing with Tyrone, watching the likes of the Peter Canavans, the Stephen O’Neills, the Brian Doohers, boys like that. They were role models, they inspired me and many other players in Tyrone as well. And I have the opportunity to do that now as well, inspire kids to grow up and want to play for Tyrone and live their dream.
“It’s not ideal getting injuries but it’s just a setback and hopefully I’ll get back to playing football, that’s what I love doing.”
APENNY for Cathal McShane’s thoughts at the moment he buried his face in the mealy February turf in Tuam Stadium and writhed in agony. The previous couple of months had been traumatic. But with the will-he, won’t-he saga of his touted move to Australia finally behind him, McShane was looking forward to picking up where he left off in 2019, in All-Starwinning form.
Then his ankle crumpled underneath him, a complete dislocation and at that moment his season lay in tatters.
“Everyone who knows me would have known I was so excited to get back playing. A lot of stuff went on with the Australia move and once that was all sorted and my decision was to stay I was so happy to get back playing.
Buzzed
“The first day back against Kerry was special but the next day I was starting and you wanted to get back to doing what you were doing the year before.”
He’ll admit now that the Australia stuff threw him. It came out of the blue. Last winter, and with the book closed on the club season, he took himself off to Dubai. The phone buzzed, letting him know there was interest from Australia. He didn’t know what to make of it at first but a follow-up call from Adelaide convinced him it was real.
It turned out that they had been watching him for some time and had already decided he had the stuff they needed. McShane had attended a combine in Dublin as a teenager but “for the experience” as much as anything else. Adelaide insisted he was the right fit, even if he was a latecomer to the game at 24.
If he was interested, they were interested. So they took him down for a fortnight and threw him in at the deep end.
Irish exports to the AFL are often posted to wing positions and in defence in an effort to help them learn the game. McShane was thrown straight in at full-forward.
He felt he did well in those sessions and his hunch was confirmed when it came close to the time for him to head home.
Adelaide wanted him to stay on, and despite speculation in this hemisphere, assured him there’d be no issues around registrations. But he flew home and into a flurry of interest.
“It was crazy, even around your local community and your close friends. You’d go for a coffee and it was a very awkward coffee, put it that way, because the boys would want to ask you but they wouldn’t ask you.
“And you didn’t want to mention it because you didn’t want the whole thing escalating any more. You wanted to make the final decision and then just go with it.
“It definitely was a difficult time. There was so much going on and I wanted what was best for myself too going forward. I was saying I was in such a fortunate position with Tyrone and after coming off the year I had. And I wanted to do so many more things with Tyrone. And for them (Adelaide) to come and get in touch with me set me off a wee bit.
“But I stayed calm took everything on board, and when I returned to Ireland I made a few more phone calls but I did go out to see if it was for me. I wanted to go out and get an insight into what that sort of life would be like and what Aussie Rules would be like.
“I did it for two weeks, and I really enjoyed it out there. You get your eyes opened to a lot of things, the professional environment, how they trained. But I think when I came back home I was looking at the small, everyday things, your friends, your family, your club and county mates, things like that.
“That’s what swung me. ‘Listen Cathal you’re in a good position, you’re giving up so much by going to Australia’. And I was so happy when I made my decision, it was like a breath of fresh air, And I could concentrate on what was coming then.”
Amazingly, it wasn’t his first time to turn down an offer to play sport in a different continent. He was a latecomer to soccer, not starting until he was around 11 or 12 but he took to it and found himself on the county Tyrone team that played in the Milk cup in 2012.
McShane scored in a 2-0 win over a Manchester United team that included the likes of Paddy McNair and Andreas Pereira, with his goal described in one report as an “unstoppable volley.” Not long afterwards, there was an offer of a soccer scholarship in California.
“I was very young, and I was playing with Tyrone and my club.”
And when it came down to it, the decision this time around was the same. A job offer with Keystone helped, but Tyrone are close, he says, to the ultimate breakthrough.
And in any case he’s already living his dream.
Bright
“I made my decision based on what was present in my life. And I was very happy, happy with how last year went. And even with the club, you can see the future is bright there too. But what I was saying was I was giving up a lot to leave Tyrone and go to Australia.
“And I kind of thought maybe they didn’t understand that, that maybe they thought the professional environment out there and they pay players and that that should be enough to persuade anyone.
“But I don’t think they understood what I was giving up back here. You grew up dreaming of playing with Tyrone, watching the likes of the Peter Canavans, the Stephen O’Neills, the Brian Doohers, boys like that.
“They were role models, they inspired me and many other players in Tyrone as well. And I have the opportunity to do that now as well, inspire kids to grow up and want to play for Tyrone and live their dream.
“It’s not ideal getting injuries but it’s just a setback and hopefully I’ll get back to playing football, that’s what I love doing.”
‘I have the opportunity to do that, inspire kids to grow up and want to play for Tyrone’