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[Burn-out madness has to end Cavan Echo Stephen King 18/03/2007]

Former Cavan player Stephen Kings view on burn out

Here's an extract from Stephen Kings column in the Cavan Echo from last week on player burn out


Burn-out madness has to end 
 
Cavan Echo 
 
Stephen King 
 
18/03/2007 
 
Another factor which is having a huge negative impact is the amount of football these young fellas are getting. I mean it defies belief when you look at this year's minor league and see twelve teams in division one.
In effect, this means that the more gifted young fellas are expected to train with their clubs on Fridays, play or train with Cavan minors on Saturday, then for twelve Sundays play for their club minor side.
This is before we even go into college football, club senior matches, schools, or hurling or any other sport. I mean take the Virginia College players as examples – some of these brilliant young players are playing for the school (soccer and Gaelic), club minors, club seniors, club Under 21's, county minors. Where is the sense in this?
It's unfair on the players themselves to ask them to prioritise, of course they don't want to let down their teammates or any of these teams, but it should be up to those in authority to look after the good young players that we have.
Burnout is one of the biggest issues facing the GAA, not alone in Cavan but all over the country, and it is time that someone shouted "STOP!"
Even looking at the Under 21 side, we had a player like Cian Mackey (who is as fine a young footballer as you will see) underperforming, and I have no doubt that a lot of that is down to the amount of football and physical training that he has been subjected to over the past handful of years.
We see the likes of Sean Johnston and Sean Brady getting injured at the minute and you have to ask the question, are these boys being looked after or is everyone buying into the whole "win at all costs" mentality?

Many young players who are considered over burdened with playing responsibilities invariably end up continually a long ways from full fitness. in my experience, this is because they attend training sessions for different teams at different levels 6/7 nights a week and each manager tends to allow them easy passage or litterally just to kick about. the end result is that they rarely do the tough work that prepares you for championship football/hurling anywhere but rather just pass themselves at several different training sessions.

I agree,but at the same time if the lads aren't fully fit then they shouldn't be played.A lot of the time players are played who are not fully fit and therefore pick up injuries or aggravate injuries which they already have. It's nearly getting to the stage where a young lad would need a personal manager to manage all his other managers/coaches.

Just a few links on studies on burnout.(hope they work)


ulster.gaa.ie/.../playerBurnout/Lynette%20Hughes%20cookstown%20presentation%2024th%20Jan%2007.pps

http://news.ulster.ac.uk/releases/2007/2951.html


http://ulster.gaa.ie/coaching%20articles/developmentArticles/psychology/Burnout%20within%20Gaelic%20Football.pdf

[Ireland Squad]

Ireland Squad
Player                          D.O.B.    Born                                Bat/bowl
Trent Johnston (capt) 29/04/1974    Wollongong, Australia                RHB RFM
Andre Botha    12/09/1975    Johannesburg, South Africa    LHB LFM
Jeremy Bray    30/11/1973    Newtown, Australia                    LHB
Kenneth Carroll    22/03/1983    Dublin    RHB LB
Peter Gillespie    11/05/1974    Strabane    RHB RM
David Langford-Smith 7/12/76                    Sydney, Australia    RHB RFM
Kyle McCallan    27/08/1975    Carrickfergus    RHB OB
John Mooney    10/02/1982    Dublin    LHB RM
Paul Mooney    15/10/1976    Dublin    RHB RM
Eoin Morgan    10/09/1986    Dublin    LHB RM/WK
Kevin O'Brien    04/03/1984    Dublin    RHB RMF
Niall O'Brien    08/11/1981    Dublin    LHB WK
William Porterfield    06/09/1984    Derry    LHB
Boyd Rankin    05/07/1984    Derry    RHB RMF
Andrew White    03/07/1980    Newtownards    RHB OB


England World Cup squad
Player                      D.O.B.                      Born    Bat/bowl
Michael Vaughan (capt)    29/10/1974    Manchester    RHB OB
James Anderson    30/07/1982    Burnley    LHB RF
Ian Bell                    11/04/1982    Walsgrave    RHB RM
Ravi Bopara    04/05/1985    Forest Gate    RHB RMF
Paul Collingwood    26/05/1976    Shotley Bridge    RHB RM
Jamie Dalrymple    21/01/81                    Nairobi, Kenya    RHB OB
Andrew Flintoff    06/12/1977    Preston    RHB RF
Ed Joyce    22/09/1978    Wicklow, Ireland    LHB
Jon Lewis                    26/08/1975    Aylesbury    RHB RMF
Sajid Mahmood    21/12/1981    Bolton    RHB RF
Paul Nixon                    21/10/1970    Carlisle    LHB WK
Monty Panesar    25/04/1982    Luton    LHB SLA
Kevin Pietersen    27/06/1980    Pietermaritzburg, South Africa    RHB OB
Liam Plunkett    06/04/1985    Middlesbrough    RHB RF
Andrew Strauss    02/03/1977    Johannesburg, South Africa    LHB LM
      

4 each and suprisinglg enough Pansaer and Mahood both English born

I'm not sure but I heard somewhere that the four? non Irish born players are married to Irish women.I also heard that England have more than the one non english born player playing for them.

The problem is that if Meath and Wexford go into the last game knowing a draw will do either of them. If we have lost to Wexford, the result we get against Waterford will be irrelevant because the way we've played so far this year, there's no way we're going to stick a big score on Waterford.

If Meath and Wexford draw,Cavan will have to beat Waterford by more than Wexford beat Cavan.If Wexford do beat Cavan  it'll only be about a point or two.
Our worst fear would be Wexford winning their last two games and then us losing out on scoring difference to Meath.But as Myles says hopefully Wexford will be beat on Sunday and that'll be that. 

If Cavan are beat on Sunday,their destiny will be still in their own hands.They'd need to beat Waterford fairly comfortable as scoring difference may also come into play.

At the moment

Meath      9 pts
Cavan     9 pts
Wexford 8 pts

This weekend
Meath bt Waterford
Wexford bt Cavan

Meath     11 pts
Wexford 10pts
Cavan      9 pts

Last Games

Wexford bt Meath
Cavan bt  Waterford

Wexford 12pts
Meath     11 pts
Cavan    11pts

Wexford draw Meath
Cavan bt  Waterford

Meath     12 pts
Wexford 11pts
Cavan    11pts

Tynan's a dose alright, but at least now he's telling us the score more often.Jaysus there was a time there that he could go through the whole game and only give the score at half-time and full-time and even these he got wrong.I do believe that Northern Sound got a number of complaints about this and he has sorted his act out on this aspect.Why commentators fell they need to do a MO'M when they can't is beyond me.All they need to do is a bit of homework on the two squads and tell us whats happening on the field.For a man who's being commentating on Cavan games this last number of years he seems to find it difficult to pick out the players.(Maybe his eyesight isn't the best).On Sat when Cullivan got injured he picked him out through a process of elimination(it's Dermot McCabe no its not it Mckeever no its not and so forth) ,surely any spectator that was there with a decent vantage point would've known who it was in a few seconds.

[From Hogan Stand]

Reports


From Hogan Stand

Two cracking first half goals helped propel NFL Division 2B promotion chasing Cavan to a fine 3-10 to 0-15 win over hosts Antrim at Casement Park.

Cavan had to come from behind to win though after Antrim had made the better start and raced into a 0-2 to 0-0 lead after four minutes.

However two minutes later Cavan got on the winning trail when Jason Reilly turned his marker 15 metres out and raced clear before netting in fine style.

Things got worse for Antrim in the 21st minute when ex-Fermanagh player Rory Gallagher put his captain Mark McKeever through for a neat goal.

Paddy Cunningham helped keep Antrim in touch with three converted frees but Cavan still held a comfortable 2-6 to 0-8 lead at the interval.

Antrim played better in the third quarter and they managed to close the gap to 0-13 to 2-8 but points by Gerald Pierson and Larry Reilly gave Cavan some relief.

Then three minutes from time Dermot McCabe wrapped up victory for Cavan when he netted from the penalty spot after a foot block on Lorcan Mulvey.



From Indo

Cavan 3-10
Antrim 0-15

CAVAN dished out another dose of the blues to Antrim in Saturday night's Allianz FL battle at Casement Park with the Breffni men's win keeping them in pole position in Division 2B.
Still, the four-point margin was a little flattering to Cavan who only sealed victory in the closing stages when Dermot McCabe smashed the ball to the net from the penalty spot after his midfield colleague Lorcan Mulvey was foot-blocked in front of goals.
That score put Cavan five points ahead before Ciarán Close tossed over Antrim's final score.
After Antrim led by 0-2 to 0-0, Cavan struck the first blow as Jason Reilly turned his marker and from close range drilled the ball to the Saffrons' net in the fifth minute.
The second hammer blow was delivered in the 21st minute by Marc McKeever as the visitors surged to a 2-6 to 0-8 half-time lead.


SCORERS - Antrim: M McCann 0-5 (1f); P Cunningham 0-4f; D Martin 0-2; S McVeigh, K Brady, E O'Neill, C Close 0-1 each. Cavan: G Pearson 0-6 (1f); M McKeever 1-1; J Reilly 1-1; D McCabe 1-0 pen; R Cullivan, L O'Reilly 0-1f.
ANTRIM - J Finucane; C Brady, P Doherty, G Bell; C McGoldrick, J Quinn, S McVeigh; D Martin, M McCann; K Brady, E O'Neill, A Gallagher; C Close, M Rea, P Cunningham. Subs: J Loughrey for C Brady (23), P Close for Loughrey (32), K Niblock for Rea (54), C McGourty for O'Neill (58).
CAVAN - J Reilly; M Cahill, A Forde, K Fannin; M Brennan, E Reilly, J Crowe; D McCabe, L Mulvey; R Cullivan, M McKeever, C Galligan; G Pearson, R Gallagher, J Reilly. Subs: M Hannon for Crowe (19), L Reilly for Cullivan (36), M Reilly for Gallagher (61),
REF - S McNamee (Tyrone).

Is this game being used as part of the super 8 series?Are the points for this of any significance?

That's 6 changes from the Sligo game (Miller).Seems a lot, and to be still sticking with Forde at FB is just plain stupid.He hasn't really impressed there in any of the games and they really should give someone else a try out there.It's strange how they seemed to sense they needed to replace him at FB for the Wicklow game and when that didn't work they never bothered trying anyone else since. It looks like that the management are putting all their eggs in one basket hoping that Rabbitte will be (and stay) fully fit for the championship.

At last a good signing, from BBC website

Wise brings in Blackburn defender 

Gray is on his way to join Leeds
Blackburn defender Michael Gray has returned for a second loan spell with struggling Championship side Leeds.
The 32-year-old, who spent three months at Elland Road in 2005, arrives for an initial month with a view to staying until the end of the season.

Gray has not been a regular at Ewood Park this season, making just 12 first-team appearances.

Boss Dennis Wise has also extended Jemal Johnson's loan spell from Wolves until the end of the season.

If we were supposed to have that good an U-21 panel why was it necessary to play Cullivan, at only 18, whilst injured, and risk putting his development back years.This has being a major problem with management down through the years,too many good young footballers with plenty of potential (the most recent being Lyng) ruined by the stupidpidty (or greediness) of their managers.

Turk,

There's actually a connection with that pub and the Offaly All Ireland winning hurling team of 98.I believe Paudie Mulhaire's  father in law ran that pub for a few years in the late 90's.

probably Redhills or Buttlersbridge,

Lads just settle for Drumliffe & The Flying Saucer,has being known to habour a few Offaly men now and again.