'I feel like there is a hole in me'

ALL-IRELAND SFC SEMI-FINAL:KIERAN McGEENEY and his players didn't speak to the media leading up to this All-Ireland semi-final. It was probably because the Kildare manager had grown tired of the four or five stupid questions he was forced to wade through to hear something worth being insightful about.

McGeeney has also had enough dumbing down of player performances through marks out of 10. However, a sensible question brought the best stream of consciousness from the former Armagh defender.

Just moments after yesterday’s agonising two-point loss to a rejuvenated Down, the 2002 All-Ireland-winning captain gathered his panel around him on halfway. He has done this after every championship encounter.

McGeeney spoke for about a minute before they broke up and followed the victors under the Hogan stand to an equally rousing reception from the lingering Lilywhite supporters. What did you say to them?

“Ach, you just tell them you are proud of them. That’s what sport is all about. You can go through to world champions, whether it is golf or snooker or rugby, you are going to lose games, big games. It’s hard.

“Sometimes I often wonder that’s why the relationship between players and press is always so prickly. People find it hard to realise when you walk out there you put yourself up to be graded as a man.

“You (the media) grade those men, their personalities, their livelihoods from one to 10. That’s how other people read them and judge them.

“They are willing to do that – that’s what you do as a sportsman. You throw everything into it. You don’t look at defeat as an option. When it comes, you haven’t prepared for it.

“To put your heart and soul into something like that there and to see it ripped away from you, it’s tough.

“I know what it feels like. I’ve been there, done that. You try to tell them that that hurt can help to push them on. It can bring them to bigger heights.

“It is part and parcel of sport, part and parcel of life; it is how you deal with it. They are disappointed but they can’t go home and feel sorry for themselves. They are good players, they are good athletes, they are good lads. They have to remember that.

“That isn’t a measure of who they are just because it tipped one way today in the last few minutes. So, I just told them to remember that and prepare themselves.”

As soon as McGeeney sat down in the sterile environment that is the Croke Park press conference room, the issue of poor officiating was put to him. At pains to commend Down’s achievement, he was equally disgusted with the umpires allowing Benny Coulter’s blatant “square ball” goal and the decision to disallow an Alan Smith “point”.

“We had to spend the last two weeks being told that (Kildare selector) Aidan O’Rourke crossed the line 22 times or 23 times. There was a marginal call about whether the ball was in play or it wasn’t. They (the officials) are the fellas who watch that and they can’t tell whether the ball goes over the bar. They can’t tell if there was a square ball.

“Idiots.

“But that’s administration at its best. It’s a shame because you are taking away from people like Benny Coulter who show great courage for going for those type of balls, you take away from the work-rate of Danny Hughes, you take away from the work-rate of Kalum King. You know, Down were outstanding today – you just can’t take that away from them.

“They were fantastic. They are very mobile, very quick. I thought we matched them. At different times they had their purple patches, we had our purple patches. We hit the post a couple of times there.

“It’s hard to take. It’s gut wrenching for the boys, you know, I feel like there is a hole in me that won’t be filled so I can’t imagine what it is like for the fellas inside there. They threw their heart and soul into it. You feel at seven points down fellas would throw in the towel. They didn’t. they just kept coming back and back. Unlucky. That’s sport, isn’t that why we all play it?”

Sport at its most cruel: “I feel like there is a hole in me that won’t be filled.” McGeeney just summed up how sport can mirror life.