The Club Jersey
The Club Jersey, Croke Park and the Club Finals
The Club Jersey
The Club jersey. You’ve known it and worn it for as long as you can remember. Club legends that went before you. Your dad. Uncles, maybe a brother. And now it’s your turn. In Croke Park. Something special. The jersey. The badge. The band of brothers. The banter and the craic. The Club. And Croke Park. Think of the lads that will come after too. The legacy you leave behind. What it all means. What’s in Jersey? The passion. Pride. The history.
That’s the way it is for eight panels of club players this week. On Saturday and Sunday the footballers and hurlers of eight intermediate and junior clubs get to do their thing in Croke Park. As the sponsors the AIB would have you believe, it is #TheToughest. A winter’s preparation and hard word boils down to one afternoon in Croke Park. Win, lose or draw, memories to last a lifetime.
And it is tough for a club. Especially with the Irish winters we’ve had, the club field under snow, or worse again flooded and wrecked. Funding for clubs is tough enough. Training is hard. Trying to get on to a pitch with lights. If you’re near a college ground maybe there’s a new 4G with lights. Or the rich neighbours up the road.
Feeding lads after training, stocking up on O’Neills sliotars, new All Ireland footballs. Training gear, a new club half zip and maybe a set of skinnys. All gets the lads looking the part. The food rota, sandwiches, soup, some sausage rolls as a treat, fruit. Plenty of water.
The club members can’t do enough. Many of them strapped for cash a bit themselves but sure it’s for the club. And you hate going back to the same people again and again, it’s always the same people in the Parish. But they wouldn’t have it any other way.
A tenner here, twenty there, the GAA National Draw tickets go to the training fund. The local pub throws in a few hundred. Buses cost money. Hotel costs money. Training matches. But nothing is ever too much with the chance of an appearance at Croke Park and the possibility of going up those Hogan steps.
For the lucky ones it becomes old hat. Croke Park every March. Nice problem to have if you can get it. But that’s more likely to happen at senior level or when a team pushes up through from Junior to Intermediate. For most clubs, Croke Park is a once in a generation thing.
For club players, since the GAA took the logical decision to introduce the Junior and Intermediate Club Finals and put them on at Croker, playing at HQ is an achievable ambition. And once out of the province it looms ahead. Capturing every spare second. Flickering on the inward eye in those early morning moments between sleep and awakening.
For the average club Joe, stepping off the bus deep in the heart of Croke Park, getting togged in those immaculate changing rooms. Pulling on a fresh O’Neills club jersey. The warm up room. The last few words. The run out those last few metres onto that sacred pitch. It’s what dreams are made of. For every team, those are details to remember after. The goal, to play the game, not the occasion.
With your brothers, your mates. The lads you grew up with and first kicked or pucked about with. The younger brother that adored you or the older lad you looked up to. This weekend. Croke Park. The AIB Club Finals. Nothing, and we mean nothing, beats being there. All the best to all the teams involved.
Saturday 6 February
Junior Football
15:00 Ardnaree Sarsfields v Templenoe
Intermediate Football
16:45 Hollymount-Carramore v St Mary's
Sunday 7 February
Junior Hurling
14:00 Eoghan Rua v Glenmore
Intermediate Hurling
15:45 Abbeyknockmoy v Bennettsbridge