Nerves are jangling ahead of start of the championship

For two very different groups of young (and maybe some not so young) people, the first few weeks of June are indeed stressful times.
The Leaving and Junior certificate exams have begun and kids are being tested on all the study and work completed throughout the year. Have they put in the work? Will they be able to handle the pressure? Will they be able to show just how much work they have put in over one exam?
This is also the time of year when another test of work ethic and application is being applied to a different set of individuals. I talk of course about the Meath senior football panel and these final few weeks before the beginning of the Leinster SFC. Whether the team is facing Carlow or Dublin in the first round, every player wants to be in that first 15 as the old adage stills holds through - the man with the jersey controls it. It is yours to lose!
The stress levels over these weeks gradually builds from the normal low levels associated with competitive sport to a crescendo climaxing on the last Thursday night before the game. On this night when, after completing your final training session, showering and having a bite to eat, you sit in the meeting room under the stand in Pairc Tailteann and steel yourself for the inevitable 'team announcement’.
In the past every manager would start his speech by declaring how difficult it has been to pick the team and that every man is a part of the group and should feel that, regardless of making the 15 or not.
Nowadays this is even more so correct with 20 players potentially being involved, but it was never any great source of comfort if your name was not called with a 1 to 15 beside it. Being left out of that first team was very hard to take and some players reacted very differently.
Some guys wore the disappointment all over their face, switching off for the remainder of the meeting and basically sulking for the rest of the week. Others manned up and realised that although disappointed this is what part of being a panel is about and if called upon they would do their job.
A manager would learn more about a substitute in those 72 hours than he would for the whole year previously. Would he sulk, or would he be one of those guys that would still try lead and still compete and contribute? The manager wants plenty of the second man, less so the first.
Throughout my time with Meath I sat in that room in Pairc Tailteann many times on those fateful Thursday nights. I can honestly say for my family and people close to me I was a nightmare to be around for the week or so leading up to that night.
Yes you got on with your daily life of going to work, interacting with colleagues, friends etc but anytime it had a chance, your mind would zone in on that team selection and if you were going to make it or not. It would preoccupy your thoughts and no matter how experienced you were you would never take your position for granted. During this week the tension would build inside every player and each would react differently to it. Nigel Crawford (a very good friend of mine and whom I would travel to training with weekly from Dublin) would completely shut down and hardly say a word for those few sessions. This was his way of being 100 per cent focused. Let’s just say the car journeys to and from Navan were not much craic those weeks. I, on the other hand, would probably talk even more and give the exterior that I was handling things fine, but that was far from the truth.
My mother used to say that she knew if I trained well or not by the way I closed the front door after a session. During those particular weeks sometimes the door was lucky if it was left on the hinges!
It is a stressful time for every player. Just like the exams, you hoped that not only the questions came up for you, but that you knew all the answers.
Before the announcement you knew roughly who you were up against for whatever particular position. If things had been going well within the camp then competition for places should be savage and decisions should be very tight to call.
Quite often I remember my name being called (or not) and straight away thinking of the guy who was battling for that positon with me. This was often an awkward moment, but there is nothing better for a squad than to see a guy who has been left out of a team coming to congratulate the man who got the jersey (and not the other way around).
This selfless act shows the real meaning of team and comradery and if attained shows a very unified group of players. It doesn’t have to be much, but even a pat on the back or a look can make all the difference.
So onto this weekend. By the time you read this each member of the Meath panel could know what number jersey they will have for the Wicklow game. Some will have reacted by sulking, but some, although disappointed and possibly angry, will react for the good of the squad.
The opposition this weekend does not really matter. What Dublin, Kildare, Laois, Westmeath, Wexford or Wicklow are doing should make no difference to each player. They only have to do THEIR job.
They require no egos in the dressing room or out on the pitch because the battles they face this summer will soon unearth any weaknesses and expose them.
No player can think he is bigger than the team and every single one of them must realise that no matter what Mick O’Dowd and his management team ask them to do, that they must do it without question, but also do it even better than they have ever done it before.
This is championship. This is what it’s all about. It’s why lads sacrifice so much. It is where you want to be as a player and just like exams it is the place to go and show all of the people who have supported, helped, coached and mentored you over the years, just what you can do.
So as to coin a phrase “just do it”.