Not such a different ball game

Kerry manager Pat O'Shea explains to Mark Roddenwhy Gaelic football and basketball complement each other quite well

KILLARNEY WAS one of those places during the 1950s and '60s where basketball was a popular game. It has a tradition in the town and my father would have played it quite a bit in the '50s. There was a local hall close by and there was a National League team there when I was young. We had an opportunity to see some of the star players in the country playing and that's where the interest developed.

I just got a love of the game really because it was one of those games that to watch was very exciting and to play was even more exciting. It was so transitional. You were on defence one second and you were attacking the next second and scores came very frequently, so it definitely got my pulse racing.

Killarney was my first team and I played with St Vincent's in the early '80s. I went to college and played with Waterford Wildcats for two years and then I went to Tralee because the National League team in Killarney went out of existence for a couple of years. It reinvented itself as St Paul's around '95 and I came back to play in Killarney.

I was invited to a number of Irish training camps but because of my involvement with Gaelic football it was difficult. In 1989, I was in the Irish team for the Promotions Cup but I forfeited the opportunity because I stayed at home to play in the county championship semi-final replay. For me, while basketball was a serious draw, because I grew up in Killarney football was always going to be the game to take most attention.

I played as a point guard, which is similar to a quarterback in American Football, where they can basically control the tempo of a game. They would control how their team would perform, who gets the ball, who is in a scoring vein and how they can attack the other team's defence.

Magic Johnson, even though he was quite a big point guard, would have been the consummate passer and he introduced a new flamboyance into the game - he was almost unstoppable. He brought fun and enjoyment to the game. He made people watch the game and was one of the reasons why I got more interested.

Unfortunately, there were different periods in basketball over the last three decades where I think vital opportunities were missed by the controlling bodies at national level to really foster and develop the game.

Today the centres that are playing it at Superleague level, outside of the major cities, are Ballina, Tralee and Killarney. They would all have a strong tradition but it's mainly the goodwill of great people on the ground in these areas that has kept the game alive.

There were times in the '80s where the top two teams, Neptune and Blue Demons from Cork, would have the doors closed half an hour or three-quarters of an hour before a National League game - 3,500 people at a basketball game in the '80s was a regular occurrence and Tralee would be quite similar.

A lot of the teams were getting big crowds but the opportunity to really develop the game was missed. I think at the moment there seems to be a waning in the game in the country and I hope that changes.

I would have done a lot of coaching, particularly at school level in my old secondary school, and a little bit with Waterford as well. It's given me the opportunity to look at some of the intricacies in basketball coaching and see if there was a possibility of having them work in Gaelic football. For example, in basketball there are a lot of set plays, be it from the sideline or from behind the basket, which are quite similar to sideline plays or free-taking plays from outside scoring range in a football game. So you're trying similar things. You're trying to get people to think a little bit more about what they want to do with the ball and what areas you can work on to get extra or easier scores.

I think the games complement each other quite well. Handling skills would be a prime example and the timing of jumps. There's also peripheral vision, which would be quite unique in basketball, where you have to be able to see a little bit more of the court than normal. And the whole transitional area, where you automatically turn on defence when you lose possession and you're automatically on the attack when you have possession. A lot of Gaelic footballers would have used basketball to keep their fitness up but it also gave them new skills to bring back to the football field the following year.