O’SHEA: IF IT GIVES PEOPLE AN OUTLET TO WATCH ON TV, I’D BE UP FOR RESTARTING
Mayo star looks on the bright side of playing coronavirus waiting game
AIDAN O’SHEA turns 30 next month. If the clock is ticking for him as the current season remains on ice, he doesn’t hear it.
Any anxiety about the prospect of a missed opportunity this summer, or even later in the year, in pursuit of that elusive All-Ireland title for him and his group, is offset by his own physical well-being. If he has to wait, his body and mind, he suggests, can accommodate it.
“From a personal point of view. I’ve been very lucky. This is my 12th year. I haven’t experienced injuries, I feel really good,” he admitted.
“It doesn’t look it, but I feel 24/25. I’d like to think I look after myself well enough that if, unfortunately, there is no championship this year that I’ll be okay in terms of getting back up to that level next year. I’m feeling pretty comfortable, pretty confident in terms of where I’m at.”
He accepts, however, that not everyone has the comfort of that little extra time on his hands. Perhaps, even in his own dressing room. Some may have considered 2020 to be their last year on the carousel.
“There are inter-county footballers who maybe thought it was their last year and that’s a difficult place to be in at the moment, in terms of not getting a championship played. Maybe, they’re not too sure whether they’ll play into 2021.”
Tempered
The waiting game has had its challenges, in relative terms, for sportspeople. However, for O’Shea, there is always some perspective. Any sense that they’ll be short-changed, in some way, if there is no green light later in the year, is tempered by the bigger picture for society, a decision he’ll comfortably live with.
“I think what’s more important is we’re talking about saving people’s lives here. If there’s the decision to make, I’m pretty okay with missing a couple of championship games. I think that (saving lives) is the greater cause.”
On balance, O’Shea feels the break will help as many as it will hinder in Mayo, noting the speed of personnel change over the last 18 months has altered their profile considerably.
“Jason Doc (Doherty) had an ACL injury last year, so he’s coming back and in a good place. You’ve Cillian (O’Connor), Donal Vaughan and Mattie Ruane, who had a shoulder operation after the Sigerson.
“We’ve brought in some good players in the last 18 months in particular. I think we played some crazy amount of players in the Championship last year, up on 30-something players. And then in the league close to 40.
“The break probably suits some of our players, but probably not the younger ones, who felt that they were in a bit of a rhythm.”
If a return to play gets the go-ahead O’Shea is already on record as saying that clubs should come first and he sticks by that now, even if the practicalities and logistics running an inter-county competition appear easier.
“I don’t want to row back on what I said on The Late Late Show, that it’s important that, as an organisation, club football takes precedence.
“If there is to be football this year and we have to wait, if it had to be one or the other, we should be making sure we build back up from the club. From a control perspective and talking to some of the doctors, that’s a challenge.
“If we have a local derby here with the club and people are so hungry for sport, you’ll see crowds that you’d probably never see at a club game. Is the inter-county game a little bit more controlled in terms of resources? I would think it is.”
If inter-county games are to be behind closed doors, O’Shea says he would have no issue with that.
“I thought about it and if it’s an absolute, we have to play behind closed doors. I would love to play,” he said, admitting watching Bundesliga games take place in that environment has been “surreal”.
“It flies in the face of the GAA and what we are about, we’re not a professional organisation, the whole idea is that it is a community-based game.
People go and see their team, they go and support them, they travel and I know it’s different times and maybe this is the new normal for a while.
“If the hands are tied on this one that there is a happy medium playing behind closed doors and giving people an outlet to watch on TV. People would love to see sport back in some capacity. As a player, if we can do that – absolutely, I’d be up for it.”
The restrictions have triggered self-sufficiency for players as they seek to maintain fitness, largely in isolation and with limited resources, prompting some to suggest that the average 31-hour week, which the inter-county player invests in preparation, as per the 2018 ESRI report, could be significantly stripped back with new practices.
Some, like Ulster GAA secretary Brian McAvoy, believe the pandemic’s effects have illustrated the games at
inter-county level can’t ever become professional.
O’Shea has said he has never advocated for a professional game in the first place and feels any references may be linked to preparation costs.
“Who’s driving professionalism? Is it really the players and the county boards, or is the expectation from spectators and everybody else out there? Supporters want their teams to be the best, they want to see them competing and that space is expensive.
“I find it hard for the players in this argument, because we’re not asking for professionalism, but we want to train and work as best we can to be the best we can.
“It’s a difficult one. I understand some of the costs for some of the counties are crazy, maybe there should be controls around that, I don’t know. High-performance sport is expensive, and that’s what we’re in.”
As for 31 hours per week, O’Shea says Mayo are “smart” with their time. “We would have been using Zoom before so we don’t have to come together. In terms of training, you’re there at six, you’re getting home at 10 – that’s not going to change.
“That’s just the length of time a training session takes now – in terms of getting in there, eat, prep, recover, then home. I don’t see that changing.
“The time around it, a lot of it is your own preparation, whether it’s your diet or recovery. There’s probably an argument to say 31 hours is too long.”
Less time commitments to sport and commuting for work and college – he is due to complete a diploma in leadership at the Irish Management Institute in Dublin online by the end of June – have allowed time for other
things and for a keen basketball fan
The Last Dance documentary on the Chicago Bulls 1997/’98 season has been ticked off the list.
As it happens, Mayo has become the latest county to add a basketball influence to their coaching, with Ballina legend Deora Marsh and former coach Terry Kennedy taking pre-season sessions.
O’Shea missed them as he recovered from shoulder surgery but watched a couple and sees big benefits from such cross-pollination of sports.
“Deora and Terry are big names in Mayo, in terms of basketball, so it was nice and fresh, something different. There is a lot to be learned. The way teams set up defensively now you have to be a little bit more creative with your spacing and then from a defensive side. I’ve always looked at it from that perspective.”