Sideline View - Where have all the characters gone?

ONE of the best things about journalism is the amount of people you get to meet – especially when sport is the topic of conversation.  In the build-up to a big game or celebrating some milestone, it’s rewarding to delve into a person’s character and tell their story.

It’s important we get to know our sporting stars.  It gives them an identity and a personality away from the cut and thrust of the sporting arena.  Behind every sportsperson there is the journey to the top.  The path is not necessarily a straight line.  There will be peaks and troughs, injury and recovery, elation and devastation.

One book I enjoyed reading was ‘Winning’ by former England Rugby coach, Sir Clive Woodward.  Taking England from relative obscurity to world champions, ‘Winning’ was a great behind the scenes story.

A different angle came from Declan Bogue in ‘This is Our Year’, with an Ulster championship journey through nine sets of eyes – one for each county.  Derry’s was the story of Mickey C (Conlan), his journey from the bread van to setting up his personal training business and juggling a busy family life with the commitment of inter-county football.

Since coming on board with the County Derry Post, I have churned out over a year of opinions, stats, match reports, previews and interviews.

One of those interviews was with tug-of –war legend Hughie Heron over a couple of mugs of tea at his Bancran Road home.  It was an interesting few hours.

Our very own Mary K (she doesn’t need a surname) took photos of the Bancran team in action and of Hughie with the club’s array of silverware.  Slaughtneil chairman Sean McGuigan uses a wheelbarrow to transport the club’s trophies but Hughie would have needed a lorry.

Hughie is a character, with the biggest hands I think I will ever witness.  Watching the Bancran team in action was insightful, with steam and sweat rising after a night of sustained maximum effort on the rope.  The grunts of pure, raw effort echoed up to the tin of their training shed.  A training cocoon built by the squad themselves.

ICE COOL

In the build-up to Slaughtneil’s All-Ireland Final, Brendan Rogers was nestled back in his chair talking at will about his path from ‘fly goalkeeper’ in the U10 Castledawson blitz to preparing to mark one of the games greatest artists – Colm Cooper.  It didn’t take ‘a gee’ out of Rogers and when St Paddy’s day came around, Rogers was the star performer.

Recently, Rogers was a ‘special guest’ at the birthday party of young Daniel McKaigue, who is a fanatical fan and his father Johnny arranged the best present of all with the appearance of the popular Slaughtneil full-back.

In the build-up to their All-Ireland semi-final St Vincent’s as a club shunned the media requests, stating they would only be conducting interviews for the final.  Diarmuid Connolly pulled out of the AIB press day, with Chrissy McKaigue talking freely.  When game day came, Connolly was nowhere and McKaigue kicked 0-4 on his way to the man of the match.

Managers and players have this myth that speaking to the media will hamper their team’s performance on a Sunday.  Rogers and McKaigue blew this theory out of the water.

Unless there are highly derogatory remarks, serious enough to be pinned up on a dressing room door to kick-start a paranoia fuelled rage, remarks in the media are irrelevant.  Managers nowadays are better than that.

Games are not won in the paper, rather on grass, as a result of preparation and a carefully thought out, effective game plan.  In an age where scouting and video analysis are king - there are no secrets.

More recently, chatting soccer, blanket defences and being one of the most targeted players in Derry club football, Eoin Bradley spoke with a smile on his face.  Totally honest.  What you see is what you get.

On Saturday’s Ray D’Arcy show, Henry Shefflin offered advice to fellow legend Colm Cooper, as ‘The Gooch’ embarks on his career in punditry – ‘just be yourself on TV.’

On Saturday, Bradley’s Coleraine were suffocated by Linfield’s dominance.  A newspaper article didn’t do that, it came from the confidence built from the Blue’s 19 game unbeaten run and a controlled performance from their central midfielder Stephen Lowry, who hails from Limavady.

I rang Lowry last week for an interview, just two days before the cup final.  I sort of expected him to say ‘lad, I can’t, David Healey said the window for interviews is over’.  He didn’t.  On his way to Belfast for the squad’s last training session, he activated the hands free in his car and talked freely about his mental preparation to turn the 2016 Cup Final defeat into a success.  It worked.  The impromptu chat didn’t affect Lowry’s ability to control Saturday’s final.

In this year’s MacRory Cup campaign, Tiernan McAteer of St Mary’s Magherafelt became a YouTube sensation with his ‘it’s a great time to be alive’ quote in the build-up to the final.  It lit up game week and didn’t prevent McAteer kicking two points to seal the school’s historic first title.

The humour of Rogers, the honesty of Eoin Bradley and the passion of Hughie Heron are what make this job rewarding.  Seconds after a big game, chatting to one of the biggest stars of the stage helps capture the pattern of the game.  In the week coming up to the game, it helps the fan base get to know the person behind the face.

But I realise that the column inches aren’t for everyone.  Mickey Moran and Patsy Bradley ‘don’t do media’, something we have all come to respect.  There are others like them, it’s not personal and we have to respect them.

If interviewing people is rewarding, covering games in Croke Park certainly isn’t.  The press box is the best seat in the house, you’ll get a nice sandwich and a mug of piping hot soup but you are detached from the soul of the game.  Games like the Hogan Final are different.  They are absent of regulations, where a dejected Paul Hughes spoke freely in the tunnel of Conor Glass’ sending off.

County games and All-Ireland Final club finals are regimented operations.  Timetables, protocols and rules to be followed by everyone.  It takes away the media’s ability to tap into the real soul of the game, the ingredient that allows it to stand out from the rest.

It prevents us putting our own stamp on the coverage, something that the association rely on to market their games to the grass roots supporters in the communities the length and breadth of the island.

Don’t get me wrong, covering games in Croke Park is still a terrific experience but it’s time the GAA just trusted the media.  We aren’t all ogres trying to stir up the pot with controversy.  We want to give the players, our number one asset, a voice to reach out to the fan base.

This isn’t a personal dig at Jim Gavin or Dessie Farrell.  What they have achieved is colossal, but I just wonder what real satisfaction they get from the success their ‘process’ delivers.

Thank God for men like Hughie Heron.  Thank God for the honesty of Eoin Bradley.  Thank God for Drum manager Kieran O’Kane.  People who tell it as it is.  Sport needs characters, without them it will be a drab environment.