Terry Reilly
FEW footballers in Mayo are steeped in the county’s history as much as Dermot Flanagan. His father was captain of the two All-Ireland winning teams of 1950-’51 and he served the county as one of its best corner backs from 1982 to 1997.
On Sunday he watched the latest crop of his home county take to the Croke Park turf and, despite the loss, he liked what he saw. But knowing the history of failure which has followed promising Mayo sides over the years he hopes the squad learns lessons from Sunday’s loss and applies them without delay.
“You can’t let it lie,” he said.
“That’s a big danger in Mayo that collectively, I’d love to see everyone look at this and hope this young team don’t have the unfortunate experience we had. We had a break through in 1985 but we had a horrendous ’86 and ’87, played Meath at the top of their game in ’88 and lost the final in ’89. I’d maintain ’86 and ’87 were lost years. My wish is this team, this coming national league, that they build realistically on what they achieved this year.”
But to do that he hopes things have changed from his day. Back then the step up from club football to the county team was too much for most players to handle.
When he started in the side he was the only player stretching before and after training. His teammates thought it was odd but he was technique obsessed and only ever ate the correct food in anticipation of a big game.
It wasn’t until he went to college that he learned at a faster rate. Several Mayo players based in Dublin joined Micheal Ó Muircheartaigh training sessions with the Kerry players in the capital. He got to tog out beside Jack O’Shea and Mick Spillane from 1983 to 1993.
Coming from Mayo’s most barren period it gave him the confidence to develop. There was no one in Mayo to pass on that knowledge to him and it’s something he hopes has improved over time.
“We made far too many mistakes in our preparation and mental approach in that time. It took an excellent team seven years to get there. We learned the hard way by bitter experience.
“There’s no degree of continuity, of handing stuff back. I’ve live in Kilkenny now and in 2001 they were concerned with the standard slipping in the county. They wrote to former county hurlers and asked them to get back involved in their club. It was a resounding success. Imagine Kilkenny was concerned about the standards slipping in hurling.”
The barrister went to some of Mayo’s training sessions in Dublin and imparted advice to the younger members on the little nuggets he picked up through his years of service. He feels it went well and a text from one of the players confirmed it.
But Mayo’s failure to pass on that advice more often has cost them. He believes, if it was done in the right spirit, the county teams could harvest the older players for specialist knowledge in various positions. Maurice Sheridan’s freetaking, Liam McHale’s fielding, Kevin McStay’s killer instinct, could all be passed on to the younger generation to prevent them losing years learning those secret arts.
They’ll also need a bigger panel and a quiet winter.
“Realistically they must find more players because you win with squads. Two or three injuries can devastate a developing team so there needs to be a squad.
“Above all there needs to be a sense of being sensible and realistic about what was achieved this year and building from the right point. We lost a final in ’89 and the euphoria over the winter was crazy and it was hard to get the heads right for the first round of the championship. Everyone in the county needs to pull together at all levels because there needs to be a fairly significant step up.”
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/wSjFAr5ed68/post.aspx
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