Carey immersed in Pearses’ ongoing journey

When it comes to Sunday’s two county final opponents, perhaps the most impressive attribute is not how good they can be when they’re at their best, but how good they are when they’re at their worst.

The spectrum doesn’t go too far. It’s seven, eight or nine out of ten every day they go out, and while each team have won three of the least seven Fahey Cup finals, both sides could look at their four knockout defeats in those seven years and say that they didn’t let themselves down in those games, they just weren’t as good as they can be.

Paul Carey was there for each of those seasons and he’s only ever known Pádraig Pearses senior football to be a consistently strong force at adult level, but his explanation for why they never fall too far, even for a season, is that they appreciate that it won’t always be like this.

“We understand that the players we have, aren't going to be around forever,” he surmised.

“There's a lot of lads there now that are nearly towards the end of their career, a lot of lads that have finished up with Roscommon in recent years, and we're trying to make the most of the bunch that we have, it's really important to do that.”

Perhaps the deeper insight however is that even when some of those players are unavailable, they’re still part of the collective cause, as a galvanising force for those that remain.

“Getting hit then at the start of this year by losing Conor Ryan and Sean Canning, Niall Daly stepping away, you're playing just as much as for them after missing out on last year,” Carey said.

“You're not just playing for yourself, you're playing for this club, you're playing for all the boys that can’t play as well, so I think that's something that's instilled in us.

“The group of players that we have here at the minute, there's such a great atmosphere around trainings, we're all fairly close off the pitch as well, so it's your life, you're immersed in it, and I couldn't wait to get back in after the Roscommon season finished. Obviously, there's a bit of a thing from last year, looking back on that final, but we're only using that now in a positive way, as motivation to get back.

“We have gotten back to where we want to be, but now we want to push on and put another good hour of football together.” 

An hour, maybe — but given their track record of taking 80 minutes to win a lot of their knockout games, it might be more than that. Which in turn invites exploration about how they see that undeniable trend.

Is it a testament to their resilience and indomitability, or a habit of sailing close to the wind that they would be as well to break?

“You're delighted to qualify and get into the county final, but after getting to extra time and probably not performing too well against Michael Glaveys, to end up in that situation again is probably not what we had planned to do, though we were prepared to do it,” Carey reflected.

“Dec (Kenny) pulled off a monster two-pointer at the end of the game, a lot of people were saying he had no right to even get the shot away there, it was just an unbelievable score.

“To get the energy from that and then go on and push on in the next 20 minutes of football and score highly in those key moments, you are ultimately satisfied by the performance in the end.

“Last year with Boyle, we needed extra time. We had Oran in extra time last year, two more extra times again this year, so look, we are comfortable I guess at that stage, but I think it's just ultimately comes down to just backing the lads that we have out on the pitch and backing the lads that come off the bench to give us impact.

“We’ll be confident if it comes to that again in the final, but you don't want to be going to too many extra times, and you don't have to, if you do what you need to do in the hour.” 

On a personal note as well as a collective one, the Pearses attacker is in search of atonement as well as silverware, having had a chance — albeit a very difficult one — to snatch last year’s title with a late free in the drawn game.

For some, overcoming that memory would take rounds upon rounds of sports psychology, but for a player who had already been the hero with some incredible scores to edge out Boyle in the quarter-final last year, the recovery process was quick, and the solution was very simple. Move on to the next challenge, no dwelling on it.

“For me personally, you have an opportunity to bring home the cup for your club, and that was a massive opportunity to let go past, but straight away, you have a replay the following week, so you have to shut the door on it fairly quick and reset,” he highlighted.

“The second day around, it wasn't as good of a game of football as the first day, but there was ultimately a lot of chances that we let slip that day, from Conor Carroll’s unbelievable shot-stopping, or from us missing opportunities on goal, we compounded a few mistakes in front of the goal, and that's why we got hurt.

“Brigid’s in the end, took their chances and we didn't,” he continued.

“That maybe brought us a small bit of comfort over the winter — that we died with our boots on and we went for the opportunities rather than pass them up. We went for our goals, they didn't come off, they’ll come off another day and hopefully that day is next Sunday.

“After last year’s final I think it was two or three weeks we got off and then back in with Roscommon after that, so you turn your focus fairly quickly straight away to that.

“Then after the Roscommon season had ended, we were so eager to get back involved here at home. A lot of lads, when they go back to their clubs, they might take another couple of weeks off as well to rest and recover after a long Roscommon season. We were point-blank, straight back to work.

“St. Brigid’s were fairly unfortunate not to go and win the ultimate prize (in January), so we knew we weren't too far away. If we have a bit of luck in our corner this time, we can right a few of those wrongs.”