‘I still feel I have a bit of value I can give’ – Begley
Veteran Laois star commits to another year in bid to bow out on ‘better note’
COLM BEGLEY didn’t play a single minute of competitive football for Laois last year. He will turn 35 at the end of August.
We’re in the midst of a pandemic with no set date for a resumption of games. And even when they do, Dublin have rendered any chance of championship silverware nigh on impossible. Would you really want to hang in for one more year on such a flimsy promise?
Well, actually, yes. No hesitation, no caveats: Begley is 100pc on board for 2021, whatever it entails and whenever. Retirement can wait.
“I was thinking about it probably a few years ago,” the Laois veteran says, alluding to the ‘R’ word. “When you hit the 30s or turn 32, it’s definitely in your head about is it the right time?
“But Mike Quirke came in (as manager) and I thought he did an excellent job. If I had a full season last year, maybe I would have considered retiring then – but because of the injuries, I decided to stay on.
Buzz
“And I was enjoying the set-up here – a good back-up team, a good buzz, some young players coming through. And because of the break, with Covid, the commitment wasn’t as long as normal years. For me, I’d probably like to finish off on a better note and I still feel I’ve a bit of value I can give to some of the players inside there. So, I’m happy to stay involved.
“But it would be on my mind. I’ll try and play the year, hopefully we’ll get through that, and then just reassess.”
Last year proved a frustrating write-up. A torn calf muscle ruled him out of the early Allianz League rounds before the first lockdown; and whereas he got back with Stradbally last summer, he then suffered a hamstring injury just as the inter-county season resumed in October.
To quit now just wouldn’t seem right, especially as Ross Munnelly (38) and Mark Timmons (who’ll be 35 before him) have vowed to play on too. “Someone was telling me I’m the third oldest on the team now and I was like, ‘Jesus, I didn’t feel I was the third oldest’ … but Rossie, thankfully, is selfless and stays in there just to keep me feeling a small bit younger!”
While Munnelly’s longevity is off the charts – he was a goalscoring final hero in 2003 when Laois ended 57 years in the Leinster SFC wilderness – Begley isn’t long behind.
He burst onto Mick O’Dwyer’s team as a dashing 19-year-old wing-back in 2005, when Laois qualified for their third consecutive provincial final.
This was the era that time forgot: when Dublin were pushed to the brink within their own fiefdom, when 81,025 patrons (then a Leinster final record) paid in to see them edge injury-time victory via the deadball boot of Tomás Quinn.
“A lifetime ago!” Begley admits, harking back to ’05. “A while ago I watched clips of it again. Dublin actually were hockeying us for a good while – which is a common theme, maybe, in the moment.
“If you look at the Laois players now, obviously we had the Leinster final against Dublin (in 2018) but, before that, I was only one of the few players who had a chance to do that and play in a situation that was huge.”
By 2006, though, Begley was in Australia
where he spent three years with the Brisbane Lions and one with St Kilda. Those four years as a full-time Aussie Rules player, he now reckons, have probably “prolonged” his second coming with Laois. “I often wonder, if I was playing from 19, would I have wanted to take a break at some stage?” he now muses.
“I’m glad I got to experience something different, and I think in the long run it probably did lengthen my career, both from the learnings of playing in AFL – and getting your body usually in good condition! – but also maybe wanting to stay involved.”
Sceptics will wonder about the motivation when your county has been oscillating beyond the league’s top tier and then suffered a chilling reminder of Dublin’s stranglehold when losing by 22 points last November.
But Begley, who works as project co-ordinator with the Gaelic Players Association, paints a more positive
‘Everyone goes on about Sam Maguire but, at certain stages, it can’t be Sam Maguire’
vista. “We were up in Division 1 (in 2012) and then went back to Division 4, so it went through waves,” he reflects. “They all have their merits too, and this is something I always talk about with certain players: ‘What is success to you?’ Everyone goes on about Sam Maguire but, at certain stages, it can’t be Sam Maguire.
Wonderful
“I remember for us, winning Division 4 (in 2018) with John Sugrue was a huge achievement. It was a wonderful experience … and from where we were at the time, that was a massive step. Then we got out of Division 3, which was further progress.”
All of which may explain why he is enthused by the various proposals for
SFC reform due for a hearing at Special Congress later this year.
Personally, he likes the summer league model feeding into the Sam Maguire and Tailteann Cups; but the very fact that competition structures are being debated is a positive.
“As long as they’re equitable – that they allow competitive games and allow all teams an opportunity,” he expands.
The move towards a split-season and shorter inter-county year is another plus. Why, then, would you walk away?
“From what I’m seeing, and talking to team-mates and friends, players are eager to get back,” he stresses. “Once they have an opportunity to get back playing, I think a lot of guys will jump at it.”