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Laois senior football captain Brian Byrne chatted to us during championship season about balancing his work commitments and representing his county.
In a world where preparing to play intercounty gaelic football and hurling requires more and more meticulous preparation and management of time and lifestyle by a player, the era when a career as a Garda was the ideal choice seems to fade ever further into history.
The old nod-and-wink culture where a couple of guards would be partnered up for a week and one would go training on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, the other would training on Monday and Wednesday, all while on the clock, has long since died out.
But no less significant has been the demise of the rural guard, stationed in a village where the majority of the job was signing passport and driving licence forms.
Standards in terms of fitness and physique have also been relaxed, standards which once led to a natural overlap with high level GAA players.
No less significant however is how the life of an inter-county player has changed.
Training demands have skyrocketed, time commitments have gone through the roof, and missing a training session at short notice is not accepted in most county panels.
And as Laois football captain Brian Byrne testifies, the life of a guard means that things can change very quickly, with no warning whatsoever.
Speaking ahead of Laois’s Leinster championship opener against Wexford on Saturday, Byrne opened up about his journey to date.
“I’ve been lucky, significant incidents haven’t come up just before a match or training or anything like that” the Graiguecullen man told LaoisToday.
“But there’s been a handful of times where literally I just can’t leave. Since I started, it was Billy Sheehan before and then Justin (McNulty), anytime I’ve had to ring and mention it, they’re very accommodating and understanding.
“It doesn’t matter what time your shift ends, if you’re there with a victim of a crime, or one of your colleagues needs backup, then you just can’t go”.
And even when you do get away physically, getting away mentally is another matter. Signing passport forms might not be exciting, but it won’t take your mind captive once you hang up your uniform. Some of the other aspects of the job are very different.
“There’s logistics at the beginning of the week, I try and plan out what days I’m working, trying to avoid some of the night shifts coming up to games.
“But yeah, if you have a road traffic collision and things like that, I don’t think there’s much you can kind of prepare you” Byrne says.
“Like the training we get to deal with these things is good, but it’s just a personal thing, it’s a human thing.
“I’ve actually found that you might be in the middle of something at training, something that might you’ve experienced that day at work or that might just come to your head in the middle of a drill, and you kind of just have to snap back out of it.
“Hopefully the longer I’m in the job and I just get better at it and I’ll deal with it”.
Consider all this, and a lot of players might say that this isn’t the career for them.
After all, how can someone coming away from a crime scene or a road traffic accident at 3am be on the same level as a student or teacher who woke up after a perfect night’s sleep and then listened to their favourite motivational podcast while slowly eating a nutritionally balanced breakfast?
But yet Byrne doesn’t just enjoy his career, he feels that when it comes to the bigger picture, it serves him well.
“I enjoy it, it probably gives a good perspective” is his considered response.
“I found maybe when I was a bit younger, I was almost too into the sport, if that makes sense. Everything depended the result, it shaped your outlook or your week. Now some of the experiences and that you see every day, it kind of gives me a healthier perspective.
“It gives you appreciation of where you grew up and your family situation and everything, how lucky you are. There’s some young lads that you come across don’t have them opportunities.
“How important the sport is, outside of just trying to win or lose, it’s what you get out of it. That’s definitely helped me now, the last few years, it’s almost opened my eyes in a healthy way.
“I’ve got better at separating work and sport and actually find trying to balance both actually helps you when you go and play.
“The sleep and everything like that, I just have to manage it. Maybe eventually it might catch up on me but for the time being, I don’t feel too bad though.”
It’s been a long road to this point for Byrne, who has been through more than his fair share of injuries, including some that might have led others to decide that it just wasn’t worth the hassle.
Part of his recovery journey involved learning that too much time to think wasn’t advisable.
“Being out with a long term injury, I probably did find that tough mentally and physically. Even getting back into it last year, I would have played the first two rounds of the league and I probably didn’t really feel myself, just that bit of apprehension.
“But come the summer, I was grand and it would make you do a lot of the gym work and everything else to avoid that situation.
“I know Evan O’Carroll is going through the same, the mental side is tough and as much as you might go over to training and do the gym with lads, they’re out in the pitch, you’re in on your own.
“There’s only so many podcasts and music you can listen to pass the time now”.
Byrne’s road to taking on the role of captain of the Laois senior football team was about much more than that however.
Before there was injury, there was rejection, and out of that was born a determination to get back involved.
“I would have had to work pretty hard to even get on to the Laois team.
“The lads got to the Leinster final in 2018, I would have been floating around the panel but I probably wasn’t up to good enough and got dropped around that time.
“Probably now it’s given me a greater appreciation. I want to really maximise it, because I’ll probably still use that as motivation in the back of my mind”.
Now, it’s clear that he values the opportunity, much more than just in terms of the chance to chase silverware, or to play in big games like last year’s Tailteann final.
“I almost look at Laois almost the same as playing with my club now, so I’m used to traveling over and seeing the lads and that.
“Fundamentally it’s good craic, that’s why I’m doing it. There’s days when I find going down into traffic sometimes you’d be questioning, but there’s a very good environment there.
“I see the lads I’m playing with Laois with, the same as I see lads in Graiguecullen. That’s the way I look at it, the dynamic is healthy”.
And is he a Tailteann Cup convert, or were Laois better off in the older system, where they were widely recognised as not a side that might win the Sam Maguire or even reach an All-Ireland semi-final, but a team that could very easily trip up a more highly-rated opponent, particularly here in the midlands?
“There are six or seven teams who are looking at Sam Maguire. The rest of us here, we’ll try to be competitive, but if we’re not in that boat, I think there’s small wins and success can be a bit subjective.
“That might be staying up in the league or focusing on getting an away win at a difficult venue” he says.
“Qualifiers or Tailteann, that’s a good question. I remember first going to watch Laois games and the lads might be in the qualifiers in Tullamore, round three or round four and you can see the crowd and atmosphere.
“I’d be good friends with Mark Timmons and he’d be telling us of some of the days going over to play in like wherever in the country, they were as big as any championship game or league finals.
“But probably from my experience, I think the Tailteann Cup is healthy. Maybe teams are a bit scarred from the provincials losing their significance with Dublin being so strong for a period of time.
“I definitely felt last year, getting to the latter stages of the Tailteann Cup, it might be a small thing, but even us winning the semi-final to get to the final, we got another three weeks or a month together in the middle of summer.
“Then in those few weeks, there was maybe only six teams left in the country, the four senior semi-finalists and the two of us in that final.
“From my experience of playing, I think the Tailteann Cup is very healthy because it gives you exposure to games and teams at your own level.
“If you’re good enough, you’ll win it and you get deserving to go up and play Sam Maguire. Sometimes it’s as simple as that.”
And on a personal level, what constitutes success for a man for whom simply playing intercounty football has required a lot of challenges to be overcome?
“I think it you get the most out of yourself and keep playing, it’s a massive honour even being the captain and being here” he replies.
“When I first started it was Stephen Attride, then Kieran Lillis and then Evan (O’Carroll), they’re some of the best players the county has ever had.
“If I can be half as good as a captain like them and be as competitive in whatever competition we’re entering, that’s our goal.”
