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LIVING OUTSIDE THE MAYO BUBBLE SUITS BARRETT
ASMILE appears on Chris Barrett’s face when he’s asked if James Horan has changed much in the four years that have passed between his first and second stints in charge of the Mayo footballers. ‘No, he hasn’t changed. He’s still the same old James,’ the veteran defender says through the grin. The manager might not be that much different, but time has moved on for the talented young footballers he initially took charge of back in the winter of 2010. They have grown up. Some are no longer so free and single.
Barrett tied the knot in December to Dearbhaile Byrne, a Tipperary woman long indoctrinated in Mayo football. Seamie O’Shea is getting married in a couple of weeks. Ger Cafferkey, Colm Boyle, Donie Vaughan and Lee Keegan are all preparing for their own nuptials later in the year.
‘Once one drops, the others all drop. Tom [Parsons] got married the year before last, and we are all falling like flies now,’ Barrett observed light-heartedly in Croke Park on Monday afternoon where he was drafted in by Allianz to promote today’s intriguing League final with Peter Keane’s freshfaced Kerry side.
Croker’s just a short spin from his home in Clontarf and as Barrett overlooked the pitch he will run onto this afternoon, it was clear the sponsors had struck gold. The 32-year-old civil engineer is an articulate and engaged interviewee, who rarely seeks the comfort of cliché.
He is one of a dozen or so Mayo players currently being ferried from Dublin during the week for training. Come the summer, when the teachers and students high-tail it back to the west, Barrett reckons there will be around six of them left in the capital.
He enjoys life in the city, especially in high summer when all of Mayo is wrapped up in the possibility of this finally being the year. Barrett can blend into the background around the northside. Nobody bothers him. He can go for a jog in St Anne’s Park or a dip in Dollymount, even if he feels it a poor relation to Blacksod Bay back home.
‘Around the time of finals or big games, you are thankful to be away from home.
‘The guys working in the bigger industries in Mayo, it’s hard for them to distance themselves from it. Our supporters are the best in the world, but they do like to talk about the team, so it does help to be up here.
‘I have Dollymount near me, although it is not like the Atlantic at home. You would be wary of putting your head underneath the water, it is a different kettle of fish altogether. But it is nice to have it around the corner and St Anne’s Park, as well.’
Mayo’s season will not hinge on capturing a first League title in 18 years against a fresh-faced Kerry this afternoon. As ever, for the westerners, their season is geared towards finally reaching the promised land. Barrett accepts that is why there has been so few retirements from the first group of players Horan worked with. Everyone fears missing out on being part of the team that finally make it.
However, the Belmullet native insists that if he doesn’t end up with a Celtic Cross, it won’t leave a black cloud hanging over his career. There have been too many good days with Mayo for that to be the case.
‘It is definitely something I want to achieve,’ he says, ‘but if we don’t achieve it, I am not going to retire, head off in the sunset and regret what I have done with my career.
‘The experiences we have had over the years have been phenomenal. It is a driving force, but every team goes into the year wanting to win it. But running out here against Kerry for this game, these are experiences that you just don’t get in any other walk of life. And we are hugely fortunate to be able to experience it and I’m hugely grateful for that.
‘When you get a bit older, you kind of appreciate that a bit more. Maybe if you asked me when I was 25 or 26, I would have said that winning the All-Ireland was the be-all and end-all. Obviously, it is something I want to achieve this year and it’s something Mayo want to achieve but if I don’t do it, it is not going to be something I will hugely regret when I do hang my boots.’
So, he doesn’t obsess about the near-misses. ‘I think that’s a bad way of looking at it. We have had plenty of great days in a Mayo jersey, given the supporters great days. You can’t look back over a career and fixate on just one win or one defeat. That’s the way I look at it, anyway.’
And even though there’s silverware at stake this afternoon, and a first League title in 18 years for Mayo, Barrett reckons this match is more about players showing Horan what they can offer come Championship time. As well as giving youngsters like Fionn McDonagh and Conor Diskin a taste of the big stage.
‘I don’t think silverware is significant at this time of the year. It’s about having an extra game for us, against a top-quality opponent. That’s what we see it as. A chance to show the management that we are learning and taking on board what they are saying and that we are progressing as a team.
‘And it is a chance for guys to put their hands up. It’s a chance for me to stake my claim for a Championship place, a chance for Fionn McDonagh and Michael Plunkett to do the same. So, it’s an extra opportunity to build on our team values and how we are structured. And it is also a chance for individuals to show what they can do on the big stage.’ For old-timers like Barrett, who have soldiered for a decade or more with Mayo, having free time last July and August was an unusual experience. It allowed batteries to be recharged and bodies to rest. Barrett and a few of his team-mates brought their partners to San Sebastian in Spain’s Basque Country for a summer holiday.
And not playing Championship football in late summer was helpful in allowing Barrett to overcome some injury problems. Even though he ended the 2017 season with an All-Star, he feels that his knee and hamstring issues means that he was still peaking towards full fitness by the time Mayo took Dublin to the brink in the All-Ireland final. That is how it has been for a few years.
‘The body has been good, and that is why it was helpful not playing late in the summer. I did a lot of work in October, November and December, just in the gym on my legs, which I haven’t been able to do over the previous years.
‘I’m feeling stronger at this time of the year now than I have felt for a long while, to be honest. I’m looking forward to staying injury-free for the summer and getting to heights that I haven’t been able to over the past few years because of the injuries.
‘I’m really looking forward to the year and to seeing where I can get to personally.’
Because of those injuries, it’s no surprise that Barrett believes he was at his optimum best in September 2017.
‘I missed the start of that year again but we had 10 matches in the Championship and that brought me on. By the end of the season, I felt that I was still improving and that my fitness was still going up. Last year, I only got two or three months of proper training with the hamstring issues.
‘As you get older too, it takes longer to get to peak fitness. When you are 23 or 24, you can miss a big block of time and come back in, fresh.
‘But as you get older, you need that block of six or seven months and then let it roll into the next year. That’s why this League has been important.’
If Horan hasn’t changed much, as Barrett sees it, he has tried to change the complexion of this Mayo side. But even with the infusion of youth this spring, come the Championship, it may rest on oldstagers like Barrett if this is finally going to be the year.
‘YOU CAN’T LOOK BACK ON A CAREER AND FIXATE ON ONE DEFEAT’