The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Striker states his case for
Cummins’ switch to back forced the ex-Saints man into retirement U-turn
If Graham Cummins the newspaper columnist suffers from self-doubt he does a very good job of hiding it.
The former St Johnstone striker is in that transition period between the end of one career and the beginning of another, a transition that Covid-19 may be accelerating.
He’s still a professional footballer in Ireland, albeit not one with any prospect of kicking a ball anytime soon. But he is also a qualified journalist, penning well-structured and thought-provoking opinion pieces for The Echo in Cork, and bringing his insight and anecdotes to podcasts for the Irish Examiner.
Whether it’s spelling out some harsh truths about what this pandemic will mean for lower league pros, nailing his colours to the mast on the best three Manchester City players of the Premier League era or incurring the wrath of the Liverpool social media fanbase with his observations on their club, Cummins has strong views and he doesn’t back down.
Perfect for the Wild West of online football comment and reaction.
That same clarity and strength of mind would also be perfect for a centreforward. But Cummins didn’t need two months of lockdown reflection to realise he wasn’t born with the ideal psychological wiring for a number nine.
It’s an awareness he has been living and playing with for his whole career.
Greedy goal-getters don’t let the skied 10-yard side-foot eat them up. Cummins did.
“I’ve always said that I was too hard on myself,” he said. “I definitely lacked confidence. All of the best strikers are able to put missed chances behind them instantly.
“I would come home and think about it and it would even affect me in training the next week.
“My St Johnstone career effectively ended in the European game at the start of my last season (the first leg against Lithuania’s FK Trakai). We were 2-1 down at home and I missed a chance. I could hear the crowd’s reaction at the time and there were all the media interviews I had to do after it.
“I never recovered from that and left later that season.
“It had been building up and that finished me off. I started well at Saints (he scoredinhisfirstthreegamesaftersigning from Exeter City) and sometimes I felt I was getting harsh criticism. Even if you play well as a striker, if you don’t score a goal some people are saying ‘get him out’. Fans always want a new striker – even if they’ve got one who scores 20 goals a year.
“If a player is bringing a lot to the team, works hard and is providing goals for others, that’s what a manager wants. Some fans don’t see that, though.”
A footballer’s life is defined by the ‘what ifs’ as much as the medals, goals, relegations, cups and titles. The intriguing one for Cummins would be what if he’d played all his professional days in the position he has now gravitated to – the one he enjoyed the most.
At last, in his early 30s, he gets to call himself a centre-back.
“I’ve gone back to playing there with Waterford and I’m delighted with it,” he said. “It’s gone well.
“I used to play there years and years ago. At that time I was actually going to finish up with football because I wasn’t enjoying it up front and I thought I’d try centre-back. I must have been about 21. I did well in pre-season but then the manager signed two centre-backs and I was up front again! That was the last time I played there until recently.
“I’ve been trying for a while to get back to it. When I was at Shamrock Rovers last year I said I’d like to give it a go and I said the same at Cork before that.
“We played Rovers in a pre-season friendly and I looked quite comfortable there. The manager has stuck with it. It was just a case of getting over first game nerves.
“It’s a much easier position. You just need to have a football brain to play there.
“It’s not a hard transition because I know strikers’ runs, where they want to go, where they want the ball played and what they don’t like.
“The older I’m getting, the slower I’m getting. I wouldn’t say I’m an unfit player or that my legs have gone but you do lose a bit of pace. If you can read the game that’s a big thing at the back.
“It had been the first time in a long time I’d been enjoying going into training.
“When you win a game you just enjoy it. Fair enough you want a clean sheet but when you’re a striker you still go home and think about that missed chance even if the team has won.
“I’d imagine I’ll be staying there now and that was my aim. That’s my position now. In the back of my mind for years I’ve thought: ‘Why didn’t I just stay at centreback?’ All you have to do is defend. People don’t expect the world of you. It probably is a regret.”
Cummins even put positional happiness over financial reward when he was weighing up his most recent change of clubs.
“I was thinking about finishing up. Going back was the only viable option to continue,” he explained.
“I had an offer to sign for a club up north. They were saying that Tommy Wright had given me a great recommendation and I was being offered double the money that I agreed with Waterford. But I didn’t want to play as a striker.
“It’s only been this year that I’ve started to enjoy football and not take it as seriously.”
Managers wouldn’t have kept signing and playing Cummins as an attacker if he hadn’t been very good at it, of course. Twice he was Ireland’s First Division Player of the Year before Preston North End paid a six-figure fee to Cork City for his services.
It’s probably no coincidence that the goal for which he’ll be remembered at Perth is the one he scored at a time when he felt best equipped to cast aside the mental baggage that had been inhibiting him. It was coming off the bench to seal a 3-1 win at Ibrox in December 2017.
“Ibrox is definitely the highlight,” said Cummins.
“I knew I wouldn’t be at the club much longer and it ended up that was my last