Came across this article when checking up Lambes inter-county stats...
Now we get to read this journalist every week in the Cavan Life!
Saturday May 15 1999
Cavan's former goalkeeper PAUL O'DOWD quit the county team because he thought it wasn't worth the hassle. Here he reflects on his decision, and outlines why he feels it has improved the quality of his life.
Cavan's former goalkeeper PAUL O'DOWD quit the county team because he thought it wasn't worth the hassle. Here he reflects on his decision, and outlines why he feels it has improved the quality of his life.
MONDAY 5.30: I log off my PC and leave work. Just months ago I would have hurried into town to catch a lift to Cavan for training. Not today though, as an ex-inter-county footballer I'll instead take the leisurely walk back to my house in Ranelagh.
At 6 o'clock, as I'm putting on the spuds for dinner, it occurs to me that I could now be in a minibus caught in a tailback outside Dunshaughlin.
I was seven years on the Cavan panel. From when I started at UCD I travelled to Cavan twice during the week for training, returning at the weekend either for a game or training.
My brother Thomas has started college at St Pat's, Drumcondra and earns spending money by working part-time at weekends. At college I was always broke and lost out socially because I couldn't get a part-time job due to time spent playing for college, club and county.
It would have been nice to get a fiver an hour for the 40 hours a week I spent travelling, training and playing football.
AS the spuds boil I read the paper. I get a good laugh from articles where some bloke protests his undying love for the county jersey and scorns professionalism. I wonder how is his pub/shop doing or how many sales he might make on the road the next day.
Some people gain benefit in kind from the GAA, most don't. When any team has a measure of success star players can trawl the medal-presenting circuit and make a handy few pounds, the other 27 panel members have to be content with the odd pat on the back and a pint in return for a year full of bullshit.
Eat spuds. Watch Simpsons, think smugly that if on that bus between Cavan and Virginia now I'd be complaining, saying ``I've had enough of this crap''.
When I joined the Cavan panel in 1992 I became conditioned to going from Dublin to Cavan for training, never being able to plan a weekend away, always feeling like a convict if I had a pint on the Saturday night before a game (every Saturday is the night before a game).
At 8 o'clock I go for a jog around UCD. They start training at Breffni Park now. At the start of the '98/99 league campaign I was injured and took a break from training. It was great to be relaxing at home instead of travelling to Cavan to run around a windswept Killygarry on dirty winter nights.
I didn't go to any of the Cavan matches because as a rule I don't watch games. In November I went to Detroit as part of the training programme for my job with EDS. Out there, far away from football, I wondered would I bother playing on my return.
Why train as a professional, play in front of 30,000 paying people at Clones and get nothing for it? League of Ireland players are paid yet have much smaller crowds.
Run finished. Shower and make cuppa. Phone rings. It's Charlie Clarke a clubmate of mine from Bailieboro.
Charlie was on the Cavan Ulster championship winning panel in 1997 but dropped off soon after because, as a farmer, he cannot afford to give the time to football.
I tell Charlie about a conversation I had with Aidan Connolly, one of the best footballers in Cavan, if not Ulster. Aidan politely declined the offer to train with Cavan for 12 nights over Easter. Aidan works in Dublin travelling from Bailieboro daily. We both agree he was right.
Talk turns to the club championship. We wonder will Adrian Lambe be back for the first round. Adrian played with Aidan, Charlie and I from under 12 right the way up to county senior level.
Like Charlie, Adrian left after '97 because of lost overtime at work. After quitting Cavan he could work overtime along with taking up other hobbies. He then decided to go to Australia for a while. Why not, we say. Couldn't do that if he was with Cavan.
Charlie asks will I ever go back. I laugh. What would I have to gain out of it. It has no bearing on my job. If I'm over in Luton requesting sign-off on a computer programme, the customer is unlikely to sign just because I'm a county footballer. I say I'd play if paid.
MANAGERS are paid five-figure sums, players shouldn't have to play for nothing and then have to beg for paltry expenses. Charlie comments that a lot of players are retiring lately because of work and personal commitments, Kieran McDonald and Martin McNamara come to mind.
Call ends. Call around to my friend's house in Rathmines. He has just watched Pat Comer's excellent documentary about Galway's passage to success in the All-Ireland final.
He's amazed at the training put in and the sacrifices made, more amazed when I tell him that 31 other teams probably put in the same training and got no All-Ireland for it. I'm sure that any county footballer who watched Pat's video saw nothing out of the ordinary.
My friend reckons he'd want to lose a good bit of weight and become a lot fitter to do that training. I tell him to be a 'keeper.
At 11 o'clock I'm driving back through Ranelagh. I could be on the bus doing well to be at Kells at this stage of the return journey. Watch telly.
By 12 o'clock I'm in bed. I had a good, relaxing evening. The bus won't hit Dublin until after midnight and by the time the lads get taxis and lifts it will be 12.30 before they make bed. I could handle that while at college because I could skip a lecture and lie on, not any more work comes first.
Now we get to read this journalist every week in the Cavan Life!
Saturday May 15 1999
Cavan's former goalkeeper PAUL O'DOWD quit the county team because he thought it wasn't worth the hassle. Here he reflects on his decision, and outlines why he feels it has improved the quality of his life.
Cavan's former goalkeeper PAUL O'DOWD quit the county team because he thought it wasn't worth the hassle. Here he reflects on his decision, and outlines why he feels it has improved the quality of his life.
MONDAY 5.30: I log off my PC and leave work. Just months ago I would have hurried into town to catch a lift to Cavan for training. Not today though, as an ex-inter-county footballer I'll instead take the leisurely walk back to my house in Ranelagh.
At 6 o'clock, as I'm putting on the spuds for dinner, it occurs to me that I could now be in a minibus caught in a tailback outside Dunshaughlin.
I was seven years on the Cavan panel. From when I started at UCD I travelled to Cavan twice during the week for training, returning at the weekend either for a game or training.
My brother Thomas has started college at St Pat's, Drumcondra and earns spending money by working part-time at weekends. At college I was always broke and lost out socially because I couldn't get a part-time job due to time spent playing for college, club and county.
It would have been nice to get a fiver an hour for the 40 hours a week I spent travelling, training and playing football.
AS the spuds boil I read the paper. I get a good laugh from articles where some bloke protests his undying love for the county jersey and scorns professionalism. I wonder how is his pub/shop doing or how many sales he might make on the road the next day.
Some people gain benefit in kind from the GAA, most don't. When any team has a measure of success star players can trawl the medal-presenting circuit and make a handy few pounds, the other 27 panel members have to be content with the odd pat on the back and a pint in return for a year full of bullshit.
Eat spuds. Watch Simpsons, think smugly that if on that bus between Cavan and Virginia now I'd be complaining, saying ``I've had enough of this crap''.
When I joined the Cavan panel in 1992 I became conditioned to going from Dublin to Cavan for training, never being able to plan a weekend away, always feeling like a convict if I had a pint on the Saturday night before a game (every Saturday is the night before a game).
At 8 o'clock I go for a jog around UCD. They start training at Breffni Park now. At the start of the '98/99 league campaign I was injured and took a break from training. It was great to be relaxing at home instead of travelling to Cavan to run around a windswept Killygarry on dirty winter nights.
I didn't go to any of the Cavan matches because as a rule I don't watch games. In November I went to Detroit as part of the training programme for my job with EDS. Out there, far away from football, I wondered would I bother playing on my return.
Why train as a professional, play in front of 30,000 paying people at Clones and get nothing for it? League of Ireland players are paid yet have much smaller crowds.
Run finished. Shower and make cuppa. Phone rings. It's Charlie Clarke a clubmate of mine from Bailieboro.
Charlie was on the Cavan Ulster championship winning panel in 1997 but dropped off soon after because, as a farmer, he cannot afford to give the time to football.
I tell Charlie about a conversation I had with Aidan Connolly, one of the best footballers in Cavan, if not Ulster. Aidan politely declined the offer to train with Cavan for 12 nights over Easter. Aidan works in Dublin travelling from Bailieboro daily. We both agree he was right.
Talk turns to the club championship. We wonder will Adrian Lambe be back for the first round. Adrian played with Aidan, Charlie and I from under 12 right the way up to county senior level.
Like Charlie, Adrian left after '97 because of lost overtime at work. After quitting Cavan he could work overtime along with taking up other hobbies. He then decided to go to Australia for a while. Why not, we say. Couldn't do that if he was with Cavan.
Charlie asks will I ever go back. I laugh. What would I have to gain out of it. It has no bearing on my job. If I'm over in Luton requesting sign-off on a computer programme, the customer is unlikely to sign just because I'm a county footballer. I say I'd play if paid.
MANAGERS are paid five-figure sums, players shouldn't have to play for nothing and then have to beg for paltry expenses. Charlie comments that a lot of players are retiring lately because of work and personal commitments, Kieran McDonald and Martin McNamara come to mind.
Call ends. Call around to my friend's house in Rathmines. He has just watched Pat Comer's excellent documentary about Galway's passage to success in the All-Ireland final.
He's amazed at the training put in and the sacrifices made, more amazed when I tell him that 31 other teams probably put in the same training and got no All-Ireland for it. I'm sure that any county footballer who watched Pat's video saw nothing out of the ordinary.
My friend reckons he'd want to lose a good bit of weight and become a lot fitter to do that training. I tell him to be a 'keeper.
At 11 o'clock I'm driving back through Ranelagh. I could be on the bus doing well to be at Kells at this stage of the return journey. Watch telly.
By 12 o'clock I'm in bed. I had a good, relaxing evening. The bus won't hit Dublin until after midnight and by the time the lads get taxis and lifts it will be 12.30 before they make bed. I could handle that while at college because I could skip a lecture and lie on, not any more work comes first.