Antrim’s Paddy Cunningham talks taking his boots off the hanger

Perhaps one player who will be keen to see this season finishing is
Paddy Cunningham.

The Antrim footballer came out of retirement this year in order to
help his county get promoted.

If the league season is not finished, then his efforts could be in vain.
A few weeks ago, Cunningham appeared on Gaelic Life’s GAA chat show
run in conjunction with NVTV, Take Your Points, and he spoke about his
experience of rejoining the county team.

“I have to say, that it was odd coming back into the fold,” Cunningham
said. “Probably more than anything it was a real shock to the system
and a real shock to the body. There is a severe level of intensity in
training. I have still been playing club football, but the sheer
volume of training compared to play county football is night and day.

“As things have evolved over the last decade the volume and intensity
of training has increased.

“The game has changed dramatically. The attention to detail is
frightening. The analysis that goes in, the preparation. In ways we
are actually spoilt. The analysis on our own performance and our
opponent’s performance is incredible.

“The other thing is the training sessions. We used to train as a team,
but now the defence trains together and the forwards train together
which is not something I have been used to. It’s fascinating.”
Cunningham said that he has noticed a marked difference in the levels
of intensity in training, and how he handles it.

“The first few sessions weren’t pretty. I had wintered well over the
last couple of seasons. I probably got comfortable with the club. I
had a lot of hard work to do, and a lot of work on my own.”

Cunningham played for Antrim for over a decade. He was part of the
senior hurling panel under Dinny Cahill, as an 18-year-old in 2004.
And then he joined the Senior football panel a few years later. And he
was a regular throughout until 2014.

Cunningham’s reasons for leaving the team in 2014 were simple. He felt
that he wasn’t up to the county game. But his attitude had changed too.

“I had very little break when I was playing right through from
underage level, and perhaps that hunger and appetite wasn’t there.
That was probably the main reason I stepped away.

“My last year under Baker (Liam Bradley), my performances weren’t up
to the level to what I would feel that they should have been. That was
clear for other people to see. It was becoming a chore more than
anything else.

Cunningham said that an extended period away from the county game may
have decreased his fitness, but the opposite was the case for his
interest. He found that as the years away from the county game passed,
a yearning grew inside him.

“I said to my wife, over the course of my six year absence, I watched
about three or four games. I was in denial. I couldn’t go and watch
the games. I think it was my way of realising that I wasn’t finished.”
Six years later, and he’s back in the squad, to deal with unfinished
business.

“The fact that I did struggle to go to watch games, and it is not
something that I realised at the time, but it was because I still
wanted to be there.

“I am delighted to be back, and hopefully we will have something to
show for it at the end of the year.”

That’s a line he said at the start of March, before the Coronavirus
hit Ireland, and threw the whole season into doubt.
He paid tribute to the manager as the reason why he got back in.

“Lenny was one of the main catalysts for getting me back. I met him a
few times and I liked what I heard. He understands what is required.

He has been flexible in terms of his approach, he understands that
there are some sessions that I might not be able to make. At the same
time, I said to Lenny, if I do commit I want to be at every session.”

While Cunningham was away from the game, he still had to deal with
attention from managers who wanted him to rejoin the team. He said
that he batted them back.

In his first year away from the county squad, he had a difficult call
to make.

“I was honest with them. When Frank Fitzsimons came on, he is a club
mate of mine at Lamh Dhearg, and it was difficult at that stage to say
no to Russ, as we would call him.

“I said to Russ, that if I went back I didn’t want to go back half
hearted. I didn’t want to go back and give 60 per cent. It is either
100 per cent or nothing. I do feel that I made the right decision to
step away.

“On reflection I wish it hadn’t been as long as before I came back.
That’s the way time unfolds. I couldn’t believe it when I found out it
had been six years since I last played.”

He can’t be too disappointed though as the time away from the county
afforded him an opportunity to win a club championship with Lamh
Dhearg, usurping St Gall’s and Cargin’s dominance of the competition.
He did say that it was strange to join the county panel as he was one
of the oldest on the team.

“I have to say that the management and the players were very
welcoming. They made me feel very comfortable, very quickly. Declan
Lynch is a good friend of mine, and he is captain this year. Paddy
McBride is in there, and Niall Delargy, I’ve played against them for a
number of years. And Ricky and Marty Johnston are there, and they were
there when I was last playing with the county.

“It is good to have Michael and Tomas McCann back too.”

Cunningham added that the competition for places has been one of the
great positives. He’s trying to win his place over a lot of younger
players but that is a good thing.

“It’s good for the cause. And good for Antrim. Lenny, in previous
years, had tried to go solely with youth and for one reason or other
maybe it didn’t pan out the way he hoped.

“The blend of youth and experience has worked out. I do feel, that at
my age, I do have to work harder.

“I am looking at this being a one year gig. I want to give everything
I have at this stage and see where it takes us.”

But if the season can’t be finished, perhaps Cunningham might have to
change his mind on that one.

This interview was part of
Take Your Points Episode 19.
Go to Gaeliclife.com/takeyourpoints
to watch all the episodes.