Kings of September by Michael Foley

Author:Michael Foley [Michael Foley]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781847176264
Publisher: The O'Brien Press
Published: 2013-10-15T04:00:00+00:00

13 COUNTING DOWN

A few weeks before the All-Ireland final, Eugene McGee took a phone call from David Walsh of the Irish Press. He was looking for a new angle on the jaded old topic of a team on All-Ireland week, and he had an idea he wanted to run by him. Walsh wondered if he could train with the Offaly team for a night. McGee respected Walsh and liked his suggestion. They settled on Monday night, six days before the final.

Walsh arrived in Ballycommon early, jittery with nerves. All week he had fretted over the smallest details. He worried about the dress code. He didn’t want to look too formal in a pristine new jersey, or too scruffy in a battered old training top. He called Liam Lyons, an old friend who had won an All-Ireland minor medal with Mayo. He had kept his jersey as a memento, but agreed to lend it to Walsh for the night. An old county jersey would look worn enough, and carried some street cred. As Walsh jogged out on to the pitch, McGee looked at the jersey and frowned.

‘What the hell are you wearing?’ he asked. ‘Get that off.’

He rummaged in a bag and pulled out an old Offaly jersey. With that he turned to the players. ‘This man is from the Irish Press,’ said McGee. ‘He has come to train with us. He won’t interfere with you and I’m sure you won’t interfere with him.’

Then, without warning, McGee named the team for the All-Ireland final: Martin Furlong, Michael Lowry, Liam O’Connor, Mick Fitzgerald, Pat Fitzgerald, Sean Lowry, Liam Currams, Tomás O’Connor, Padraic Dunne, John Guinan, Richie Connor, Gerry Carroll, Brendan Lowry, Matt Connor, Johnny Mooney.

There was silence. Between the lines was contained the story of Offaly’s summer and the breadth of McGee’s thinking. Mick Fitzgerald and Michael Lowry had been swapped to allow Fitzgerald follow Mikey Sheehy. Matt Connor was switched from wing-forward to full-forward to give John O’Keeffe something to chew on. Richie Connor stayed at centre-forward, and Sean Lowry at centre-back. Having used John Guinan’s heft at full-forward against Galway, he was now released to the wing where he could physically match Tommy Doyle.

Gerry Carroll had moved to wing-forward during the Galway game and was retained there. From the team that had lined out against Louth in their first game in the Leinster championship, three players had been dropped and only five held the same positions all summer. It was a team that had transformed itself throughout the championship, though the hand of its creator was constantly evident.

The players arranged themselves in a circle and Tom Donoghue eased them through their stretching exercises. ‘You know, lads, we’ve been very lucky with injuries this year,’ he said. ‘It’d be a pity if things went wrong now. So stretch those hamstrings.’

Offaly were on a high. Two days earlier, on Saturday night, they had crushed Down in a challenge game that left the Down officials certain Offaly could win. Now they played a match that concentrated on the handpass at blinding pace.

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