If January is a wicked month, it can often show what a player is made of, building character for days that matter

Colm O'Rourke

This time of year brings a sense of renewed enthusiasm during a bleak time

The Longford team warm-up before the O'Byrne Cup Group 'A' match between Longford and Louth at Rathcline GAA club in Lanesboro, Longford. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile

January 09 2022 02:30 AM

If the GAA was having a nine-month season and people were asked what three months should be off, most would probably nominate December, January and early February as the months to go into hibernation.

And if pushed to have one month with no games, then January would get the nod certainly.

January is a time for students to have their fun in third-level competitions, young hardy lads should not pass any remarks on the weather. They are the exact opposite of what Noel Coward sang about “mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun”. We have our eccentrics, they go out in the bitter wind and slanting rain of January.

Yet this year, most county teams will play the majority of their football in the first three months of the year. This is decided by the timing of the All-Ireland football final in July. So you start from that date and work backwards.

This is to accommodate championship, league and pre-season games in that order. So we end up back at this point and the Allianz National League beginning at the end of the month.

Some matches are off this weekend, but it would be an interesting experiment to see how many players playing the first game of the year with their county end up starting in the championship. Not many in most cases, even if Kerry had a good number of their first 15 when they trounced Limerick in the McGrath Cup on Wednesday night. T

he new broom has not brushed it all clean. So Jack O’Connor has everyone on board from day one. A manager with a winning pedigree has that effect on players. They don’t want to miss out early in case they don’t get their place back.

Dublin have been the opposite of that for the last five or six years. The early season did not bother them unduly. While the third team played in the O’Byrne Cup, the rest were sunning themselves in some far-off resort. Those who performed well in these matches could hope to jump on to the main panel, but few made the first 15. That will change this year too. There are places up for grabs, the hungriest and the bravest wolf gets to lead the pack.

There is a question mark over the value of skill training in bad weather conditions. There is a view that it is a complete waste of time as cold hands, freezing feet and a wet ball all add up to torture, not skill improvement. Then some argue that players who can cope in the worst of conditions will have an even bigger advantage when temperatures improve, so it depends on which side you butter your bread.

However, there is something primal and, indeed, thrilling for a team completing a really tough training session with the rain, hail or snow beating down. It often feels a lot better than a similar one finished on a nice summer’s evening. If January is a wicked month, it can often show what a player is made of. Most players are followers and if the leaders are willing to brave and endure the worst of the elements, then many will follow. Yet, leave them an easy way out, and they will take that.

I remember many sessions in snow and rain where there was a deep personal and collective satisfaction of taking on the weather and not giving in. It is good for the soul and builds character, the sort of character a player seeks within himself on the biggest days in the championship. If a man can look within himself and remember having conquered harder days, then the response will be positive. Those who looked out at the wind and rain of January and decided to take an easy way out will do the same when the sun is shining.

Of course, pitches and training facilities of all kinds are better now, but it is still like the army. Boots on the ground win wars and mental toughness is something you possess or do not. It comes from the genes and upbringing, but sometimes those branded as soft can surprise everyone. It is all revealed in tough training sessions, which sometimes may have no scientific logic other than testing mental resolve.

Presently, most serious players look after their fitness to a large extent and county sessions are to put on the gloss. One thing is for sure, those that do the minimum training only will never make it at county level. A player needs to train almost every day. That might just be a light run to loosen up after a hard group session. Another certainty is that those county players of the past who would arrive back in February or March carrying a stone of timber would not cut the mustard anymore.

At the time, it was a sort of accepted wisdom that a player needed something to work off in spring, so a packet of fags, a few pints and the worst of food was acceptable over the winter.

Nowadays, club players are in far better shape than most county players of the 1970s and ’80s. The present generation look after themselves much better and have increased knowledge of diet and gym work. Whether they are better footballers is a horse of a different colour as fitness is only one component of a player’s overall package.

It is not just mad dogs and Irish inter-county players who go out in the wild nights of January. If you travel the country over the next few weeks, the glare of lights in the night sky will appear in every parish, village and town. Club training will be starting. New promises, the same as last year and the year before, will be made. Dedication, fitness, loyalty, all these words will be bandied around.

And even in my advancing years, I still get carried on in this tidal wave of new energy as I get back training with the senior team in Simonstown Gaels.

The hardest part for me is looking out at the weather and taking the plunge. Like the Chinese proverb, the longest journey starts with the shortest step, getting off the couch. Anyway, there is nothing to beat a team going hard at it in the worst of weather. It can bring satisfaction and a sense of renewed enthusiasm at a bleak time. Maybe January is not such a bad month after all.