Bigger than football
Healy appreciating the simple things
ON February 16, I was standing just off the Town’s End side of the county grounds pitch in Aughrim, waiting to speak with Davy Burke about Wicklow’s impressive 1-15 to 1-10 win over Sligo in division four of the national football league.
The sudden cascade of torrential rain would force our conversation just inside the main building, but before the weather threatened to wash us all away, I was able to observe the post-match warmdown that mainly consisted of substitutes and players who were being brought up to scratch on their fitness.
In amongst that group of players was Dean Healy, who had played every second of every game in the league and pre-season this year, other than the last few minutes of their O’Byrne Cup defeat to Carlow, in which he was sent-off. The energy levels demonstrated by the county captain and St. Pat’s stalwart is a testament to an individual who, according to manager Davy Burke, had joined up with the new set-up mere days after playing in his club’s Leinster quarter-final defeat to Portlaoise in November.
It is almost impossible to say when Healy will take to the Aughrim turf again this year. Since March 21, there has been a blanket ban on all sporting activity – including training sessions of any variety – as the country got to grips with the Covid-19 coronavirus outbreak which was sweeping across the globe.
Between this initial moratorium and the very real possibility that the GAA inter-county and club leagues and championships being played ‘behind closed doors’ or not at all.
This break from GAA commitments has given Healy the chance to take a step back, heal up, and gain a fresh perspective on this. He has grabbed this opportunity with both hands and has come away with a humbled appreciation for the more important things in life.
‘What is happening at the minute is bigger than football,’ he says.
‘My mother has obviously played a big part in my life, in general and especially in sport, and I am isolating away from her. Everyone in Ireland is making sacrifices. I would love nothing more than to see my mother every day.
‘Hopefully, there is light at the end of the tunnel and there is club and Leinster championship to be played, but it may be a case that there is not and people need to get their heads around that, as well.
‘I am enjoying my days, to be honest with you, and I am also very fortunate in that, before lockdown, I was able to get a gym set up, so I am finding myself exercising more than I would have been when playing sport.
‘I was talking to Gary Jameson at the start of all of this, and I said that by the time we come out the right side of all this, I have probably added three or four years onto my football career, between the break and being able to focus and build myself up.’
Healy admits that, while he is missing the camaraderie that comes with playing and training with his teammates and friends, the break from contact training has allowed for him to heal from niggling injuries that have come part-and-parcel with his high intensity way of playing.
As for the future prospects of the 2020 season, the 28-year-old – who works from home as an accountant with Grant Thornton – believes that it would be difficult to accept playing matches in front of no supporters, while also suggesting that the nature of the sport limits the containment of the virus among the players.
‘I think it would be very hard to play games ‘behind closed doors’. When you think about the players, there is the potential risk of contracting the virus. Sport is played in close contact. I just think football is for the people, especially club championships.
‘As for the county scene, that is probably alright for bigger counties, but when you are in a county like Wicklow and you are trying to build a fansbase – especially after the few wins that we did get this year and the positive energy that Burke and his new management team have brought – I think it would be very hard to play games ‘behind closed doors’.
‘You are trying to get people out and put bums in seats to watch and appreciate the effort and improvements that have come with the team this year.
‘It comes back to that whole uncertainty around everything. There is talk of the club championship being played prior to the county because there is probably less exposure to small crowds at club games, but it is out of the GAA’s hands, at the end of the day.
‘You read in the news everyday of the increases in deaths and confirmed cases, so I think it would be very naïve for people to try and decide how this championship will pan out, in terms of club and county.’