Mor’ he plays, happier he is
GEARÓID IS THRIVING WITH CORK
GEARÓID MORRISSEY knew what he was coming back to but he still wasn’t prepared for his re-introduction to the wilds of Cork City under John Caulfield.
Twice the 25-year- old has been away to England and twice he has returned to his natural habitat at Turner’s Cross. From Shed End antics to centre midfield battles, this is where he belongs.
It would be easy to return bitter and bereft of hope, simply slide into obscurity. Not Morrissey. He was emboldened to deliver success and is on the cusp of an historic league and FAI Cup double this weekend. Morrissey knew no other way. ‘It took me a while to get that focus and mindset where I knew what I needed to do,’ he explained.
‘The people here are so close. ‘Everybody knows everybody, especially in football in Ireland. It’s tiny. You really have to adapt quickly and understand and what way to react to things.
‘In every crowd you have someone who says something you’re not going to believe, but he’s outnumbered 10 to 1 down here in terms of the positive stuff that comes at you. It’s par for the course and you just take it on the chin, in one ear and out the other.
‘You go to Turner’s Cross there and you see the attendances all season. You’re out there playing, training, whatever and your neighbours are in the stand, friends are in the stand, family are in the stand — everyone you know. It’s a great thing to go out and put in a shift knowing they are watching and fill them with pride, as well as yourself.’
The former Blackburn Rovers trainee took his release from Ewood Park on the chin in 2010 and regrouped by helping the Leesiders earn promotion from the First Division. His performances in the top flight then earned him another crack in the English Football League with Cambridge United.
It didn’t work out, through injury and falling out of favour, but he refused to let it get the better of him and the chance to come home ahead of the 2016 season was too good to turn down — although it wasn’t plain sailing.
‘It took me a while to get used to it,’ he admitted. ‘It took me until the summer, the European games, to get that focus and mindset where I knew what I needed to do. You spend a year under a different manager and he’s doing every little thing differently and then you have to go back. I know I was under John before but you naturally get used to doing things a certain way and then you go back.’
Morrissey has been pivotal to Cork’s progress. Last season’s Irish Daily Mail FAI Cup win proved to be the catalyst for this season’s league triumph and he has been an unrelenting force in the middle of the park.
A dedicated follower of the sports psychologist Dan Abrahams — who works with the England rugby team and Premier League club Bournemouth — his books and seminars have helped shape Morrissey’s thinking both on and off the pitch.
‘There is a fine line there with confidence and I take any tool I can to mentally stay in that space so anything that helps I would give it a go,’ he added
‘We’re in a great frame of mind — a professional mind, a confident mind, it’s a determined one. I wouldn’t say there is no pressure because no matter what there is pressure. It’s a perfect balance of all those aspects.
‘When you do well it can be easy, mentally, the pressure has been lifted so that could work against you, you get complacent. You need to work on it, and actively do so because it doesn’t just happen.
‘You need to make sure you’re not cocky or over confident – that you’re professional, determined, focused and in exactly the right space mentally to go compete and do things. That’s the trick to being a champion and winning things,’ Morrissey believes.
‘It’s constantly moving and the hardest part is to stay there, and stay as consistent as possible as things can happen during a season, you can take your foot off the gas or whatever it may be that comes at you.
‘That’s the manager’s job and individuals job but thankfully we have the people here with the skills to do that. Even creating the chance to win a league is massively difficult. It rolls off the tongue there saying we won the league and we’re in the Cup final, it doesn’t do it justice, the slog that has to go into it. People around Cork do appreciate the fact the lads are at it.’
Morrissey will be the one setting the standards on Sunday.