Summer is here and the competition for places is starting to hot up

It’s that time of year. The league is over and inter-county football teams are now in their final throes of preparing for the upcoming championship. So what does this involve?
Well firstly from a player’s point of view, it is to try not get injured. This of course is easier said than done as you generally have a round or two of club championship along with a number of challenge matches thrown in along the way.
There is no point minding yourself during these games as it is these outings that sharpen you physically and hopefully put you in a good mental state coming into the first round of championship. You play as hard as you possibly can during these games and just pray that you come through relatively unscathed.
It really is a great time to be involved in an inter-county set up. The winter slog has passed and you are now facing into a summer of possibilities. It is the time for anyone and everyone to shine.
Players who may have had a bad league campaign or maybe who did not get a chance earlier in the year realise this and up their game. Established guys also do this.
The concentration levels increase and with it the performances at training massively improve (or at least they should do). But at this time of the year one other element appears now more than at any other time of the year and that is competition.
Lads who you thought where friends of yours and who wouldn’t raise a hand against you are now trying to take your head off. Anything goes and it generally does. The best way to foster this type of competition is to have full on games within the team. These usually happen a few weeks before the first round and generally follow a similar pattern.
Depending on injuries a few lads are generally called in for these games who are going well with various clubs within the county.
For the most part to say these players have their eyes opened would be a major understatement. The intensity, pace, fitness and general football should be at a standard that they have not expericned before.
Usually teams are picked along the lines of the Probables v the Possibles. A kind of Lions test team selection versus the midweek team. And much like those games of rugby the “Possibles” are ready to do whatever it takes to get a starting position.
Throughout my Meath career I was involved on both sides of this coin. During the early years I often found myself on the “Possibles”, but massively enjoyed the feeling within that group. It was usually the Possibles that set the tone for these games and without them raising the intensity levels these games would be of little benefit to anyone.
I remember one particular year Cormac “Spud” Murphy had been selected on the Possibles side. Probably much to Spud’s surprise he found himself lining out with a bunch of younger and less established players on the panel. Let’s just say he was not happy.
The game began and we played like hopefuls. The main team gave us a lesson and raced into a big lead. At half-time Spud had had enough. He was sick of watching Ollie Murphy, Graham Geraghty and whoever else was in the full-forward line kicking points for fun. He absolutely lashed into us during the half-time huddle.
He told us that we were not only doing ourselves any good, but we were of no benefit to the other lads as they would not get anything as easy in the championship. He really gave it to us, individually selecting lads and asking if they wanted to be on the Meath team or if they were just happy to be pulling on a subs jersey.
He reminded us that it was up to us to convince the management that they were going to make a mistake by selecting certain lads and it was up to us to tear that jersey off the back of the other man.
Of course it did the trick. We absolutely tore into them in the second-half. Reputations were forgotten and lads started to nail anything that moved.
At one point Richie Kealy and Mark Reilly came together about mid-way through the second-half and about four minutes later they were still on the ground - getting to know each other a little better.
The rest of us continued on with the game and eyed up the next battle that had to be won. We always had an outside referee for these games and he was usually given a fairly lenient mandate by the management teams. If they ever brought yellow or red cards with them, I certainly never saw them using them.
The greatest thing about these sessions were that as soon as they were over everyone warmed down together and the banter would begin.
Lads knew what had to be done for the squad to be driven to another level and if anyone held any grudges or wanted to sulk they would very soon be ousted by the rest of the panel.
This was either done in a jovial way by slagging a guy or if needs would be sorted out the next night at training!
They were great training sessions and everyone wanted to be involved in them. I remember being more nervous before these games than most inter-county games.
Driving to Navan on a Saturday morning in May usually meant only one thing was on the menu for training, a match behind closed doors, and you’d better be ready for it.
Outside of championship battling against your peers, your teammates and your friends are the best barometer you can get of your progress.
After spending many months training beside them you were now being pitted against them to try and win one of the 15 starting positions. It was teammate versus teammate, friend versus friend and it was all you would want.