Great survivor Brady aims for big win

Paul Fitzpatrick

Think of it as a journey and it makes sense. A starting point, some twists on the path and, finally, a destination.

For half of his life, Sean Brady has been playing adult football for Castlerahan. On Sunday, he’ll lead them out for the county final as they go again, hunting for the one trophy that has eluded them. It’s a long road from there to here.

At 16 years of age, Brady played midfield on the Castlerahan team which won the Intermediate Championship. He’s not one for looking back but when he gets to thinking about it, he wonders was it the same game he played back then.

That winter, the Castlerahan players decided they’d jump ahead of the curve. The club invested in a few skipping ropes and the panel would convene once or twice a week in the cramped little hall in Ballyjamesduff for some circuit training. It was all new; it felt groundbreaking.

“That was the first introduction to that kind of physical training other than just running. And that was something different at the time,” reflects Brady, smiling at the innocence of it.

He’s 32 now (well, his birthday is on Friday and, he laughs, he’s “hanging on to that 31 for a few days yet!”) and he has amassed a bank of experience from which he’ll look to draw this Sunday. In 2001, though, he was in his first year on the team. At that age, they don’t stop to think about it, they just do it. So, he did.

“It’s a while ago, the boys slag me about it. Sure it was great, myself and Dane Smith were the youngest playing, there were a good group of lads there. I suppose I’m the only surviving member of that team, John Clarke retired there a few years ago.

“It was a good group and there are good memories from it.”

Whatever happens on Sunday, it’s a safe bet that it will be a totally different match to that 2001 final, the last days of an era where everyone looked after their own man, defenders defended and attackers attacked and the equation was a simple one.

Now, teams work on their sums in advance and calculate ways to befuddle the opposition while trying not to show their working.

“It was a lot more open back then. Even in the last few years it’s changed dramatically, I suppose since Jim McGuiness took over Donegal,” says Brady.

“It’s not as open obviously, there’s a lot more emphasis on defence. There’s not as much long kicking as there was, now if you kick a direct ball more often than not there are two or three sweepers back. It’s totally different.”

He has survived, though, and modified his approach. With his team-mates, he spends two or three nights each week pumping iron. He’ll be the oldest player on the field when the ball is thrown in on Sunday but he’s more than keeping up with the kids this season. He’s leading them, too.

Against Lacken in the quarter-final, when regular full-back Brian Coleman was injured, Brady minded the house. In other games he was at full-forward; he’s put in shifts at midfield, too. That versatility is important now. The game changed and players had to follow suit or be left behind.

And Brady has been playing a man’s role since he was a boy anyway - he didn’t shirk from it but it took its toll. Eventually, the knocks added up and his body cried out for some respite.

A fractured ankle in the 2013 semi-final against Cavan Gaels was followed by a serious shoulder injury. It’s only now, he says, two operations and months of rehab later, that he has fully recovered.

“I played a wee bit but I didn’t really get back to full fitness over the last two years with operations and recovery.

“I got surgery at Christmas before last and there was a good bit of recovery involved in it and I didn’t really get back training with the team till July or August so after being out for so long it was a lot to ask to get back fully fit. It was a gradual enough process. I wasn’t fully fit last year anyway.

“There was a lot in it. I’ve been doing rehab since last year and then got back into the gym properly, it was a shoulder injury so it was very restrictive in terms of being able to do any weights. Since January this year I was able to get training properly and it’s good to get a good run at it.

“When you’re picking up bits and pieces of injuries it’s hard to get a prolonged period of training but when you get a good run at it, it makes all the difference.”

Castlerahan’s players and management know that better than anyone. Brady, as precocious a player as any to emerge in the last 20 years, has always had the full repertoire of skills – both feet, awesome handling – but his return to a team scarred by a couple of county final losses has added that assuredness of someone born to the job.

Not that he’s one to crow about it. That’s not Brady’s way.

“You can only get experience by playing, when you’re 16 or so you think you’ll be playing in finals every year but it’s not that easy.

“You gain experience every year, even now you’d be learning from players around you and different managers and it all adds up and hopefully makes a difference.”

It’s a cliché to ask if the couple of years out have made him more hungry now that he’s back. We ask it anyway but the response is different than the norm.

“Ah no, I wouldn’t say that. I’d be motivated anyway,” he says.

“I’m always motivated to play with Castlerahan and perform as well as we can. You don’t really need any extra motivation in the county final, once you’re in it you just want to perform as well as you can and win it, that’s really it.”

But, Brady admits when asked, it’s not really it. There’s a context. To win, just once, would be a big thing but it’s not the only thing.

The deaths of the Hawe family cast a shadow on a bright Monday back in August. All were involved in the club. It was unthinkable.

In the hours after the dreadful news broke, officials were inundated with media requests. The contrast between then and now, dealing with the local paper for a county final, couldn’t be more different.

And while they got back to doing what they do and, as we write, the bunting criss-crossing the town’s streets flutters proudly, the club still hasn’t got over the shock. That will take time.

There’s a buzz around, of course, but it’s slightly muted and that’s only natural.

“I suppose everyone would have spoken about it because obviously it was an awful tragedy. The players would have talked about it, it was hard not to, the young lads were in the club as well.

“Some of us wouldn’t have known them personally but there are other lads who would have coached them. It was just an awful thing to happen and obviously would have had an impact on the club.

“At the end of the day, it’s a county final but there are other more important things in life and it gives you a bit of perspective. That’s probably part of it, people are excited about the match but that’s there too and there might not be the exact same excitement as there was.

“We’ve been in a few finals now too and just haven’t got across the line so there’s no point in getting too excited any more about getting to the final. It’s about winning it now.”

Advice worth taking.