Devaney hopes to teach colleagues a painful lesson
ONE of the GAA’s enduring charms will once more be in the shop window for all to see at today’s Connacht final.
In a week when the possibility of tax exemptions for intercounty players was raised, we will be reminded once more that this is a game played by men at work. Conor Devaney will get to share the Salthill pitch with a couple of friends who he normally gets to share the staff room with in Roscommon Community School, where Galway’s Paul Conroy and Tom Flynn are fellow teachers.
‘I try to get into their heads and try to get the better of them. They are not ignoring me yet, but they might end up blocking my number,’ jokes half-back Devaney.
‘It is interesting with the three of us because we are good friends. We have been talking about football all year.’
Devaney’s hope is that when school returns in the autumn, he will be the one wearing the smile welcoming in a new term.
If that smile was there last autumn, it was painted on, after a season of promise was vaporised inside six days.
They were pulverised by Galway in a Connacht final replay and then made the most feeble of qualifier exits to Clare.
Going from reaching the League semi-finals with two rounds to spare to being were wiped out by a team who had operated out of the League’s third tier provided a stark measure of their fall.
And the bleeding continued in the close season as Fergal O’Donnell and Kevin McStay’s management partnership fractured, followed by a line of players, including such established figures as Senan Kilbride, Donie Shine, Neil Collins and Cathal Cregg — either retiring or opting out.
Relegation followed this spring and yet despite that litany of woe, Devaney is upbeat about their fortunes.
‘The biggest difference between this year and last year is that between the League and the Championship, there was an 11-week break and we got two rounds of club championship.’
‘Last year, within two weeks of the League semi-final we were over in New York, and straight after that we played Leitrim and Sligo, so we had no break.
‘We also had to get fitter and sharper earlier last year whereas planning out the season this year we knew that we did not have to do that.
‘That probably cost us in the League, but it might not have caused us a huge amount of harm that we did get relegated but we will see.’
It requires a huge leap of faith to believe Roscommon can win a first Connacht title since 2010.
Devaney, one of several graduates from the 2006 AllIreland minor winning team, had made his senior debut but still missed out on that glory day after he opted to take a summer out to play ball with Seán Treacy’s in San Francisco.
It would not be his only absence; his tense relationship with John Evans prompted him to pull away from the panel in 2014 and 2015, when he was arguably in his prime.
‘It was a big chunk of my career but I absolutely don’t look back with any bitterness.
‘It was just that he had a certain vision the way managers do. Looking back, it was a good thing to miss out on those couple of years because you come back more focused because you know exactly what you want.’
And there is nothing he wants more than this.