How a GAA background helped a host of soccer and rugby stars get a head start
Cork manager John Meyler with his son and former Ireland player David Meyler and fans after the 2018 Munster final. Picture: Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
BACK in April, Ireland soccer international Aoife Mannion posted a photo on her Twitter account showing her as an 11-year-old in Croke Park, alongside Jack Grealish.
The two were playing there together on the day of the 2007 Leinster football final between Dublin and Laois. Grealish and Mannion, who were in primary school together, are both from Birmingham and were representing the Warwickshire Schools Development Squad.
Memory lane… collar up pic.twitter.com/l8Ou6FyihD
— Aoife Mannion (@aoifemannion_) April 27, 2023
The two youngsters were over with the team on a tour of Leinster where they also visited St. Kevin's of Wicklow, Portlaoise, and Éire Óg in Carlow.
Grealish played Gaelic football for the John Mitchels club in Bermingham. A few years back, Grealish’s former underage coach at John Mitchels, Michael Healy, revealed how much his GAA background helped his development as a young protégé at Aston Villa.
"He had that raw natural ability from the start, but we noticed quite early that he was a good motivator," Healy said in an interview in The Guardian in 2015. "Because he was one of the better players he was targeted. I think playing with Mitchels made him tougher, especially because you take a lot more hits compared to football."
There was also a story told about Grealish’s first match for Mitchels, which enabled him to develop that hardness to prosper in the Premier League. In an U10 match, an eight-year-old Grealish was in a tussle with an opponent. Grealish demanded a free-kick. He was swiftly told to get back on his feet.
“This isn’t soccer, son,” came the referee’s response, offering a rustic reminder that, even in a blustery Birmingham field, he would need toughening up to make the grade.
Yet a number of International soccer players played hurling and football growing up.
Kevin Moran was the most successful, winning All-Ireland senior football medals with Dublin in 1976 and 1977 before joining Manchester United. Niall Quinn played in the 1983 All-Ireland minor hurling final. Denis Irwin played for the Barrs in both codes. Martin O’Neill was a brilliant underage footballer in Derry. Neil Lennon played in the 1989 Ulster minor football final for Armagh.
John O’Shea, Kevin Doyle and Seamus Coleman played football growing up in Waterford, Wexford and Donegal respectively.
Shane Long was a brilliant minor hurler in Tipperary. Stephen Hunt played underage hurling for Waterford at U15 and U16. David Meyler played underage for Blackrock and St Michael’s.
A number of international rugby players also got an early grounding in GAA. Tomás O’Leary captained Cork to an All-Ireland minor hurling title in 2001. Gavin Duffy played minor and senior for Mayo.
Shane Horgan played minor football for Meath. Robbie Henshaw played minor football for Westmeath. Tommy Bowe played minor for Monaghan. Geordan Murphy was a Kildare minor footballer. Rob Kearney was a Louth minor. Seán Cronin played minor football for Limerick in 2004 and won a county senior football medal with Monaleen in 2005. Jack Carty featured at minor level for Roscommon. Simon Zebo played with Blackrock and St Michael’s.
Mick Galwey was probably the most successful dual player of the lot from a rugby background, with Galwey having won an All-Ireland senior medal with Kerry in 1986 before going to have a brilliant career with Munster and Ireland.
Galwey isn’t the only well-known sports figure though, to have played GAA at a young age. Golfers Paul McGinley and Padraig Harrington played football for Ballyboden St Enda’s. Dennis Taylor, the former World snooker champion, was selected to play for the Tyrone minor footballers in the 1960s.
On rare occasions, some International stars go the other way. The former All Black great Zinzan Brooke loved Gaelic football, saying it played a huge part in his development as a rugby player.
In his early days, Brooke played club football with Roskill Rangers in the 1980s during the summer, playing in the Australasian championship for six years, regularly coming up against Jim Stynes, the legendary AFL player who played minor football for Dublin.
"Were I an Irishman I'd play Gaelic football till the day I dropped dead,” wrote Brooke in his autobiography .
The benefits of playing multiple sports has never been more important for kids, from both an athletic standpoint and a psychological and social perspective.
Research has shown that kids who specialize early may be more inclined to quit due to factors like decreased motivation and loss of enjoyment. Some technical sports do require specialisation in order to progress to the elite level but the athletic benefits of playing multiple sports gives children more options as they get older, as well as helping them to become more well-rounded as people.
A few years back, when the FAI expressed their desire to have young athletes choose a single sport to pursue from an early age, rather than playing multiple sports as they grow up, David Meyler outlined his disagreement with that policy.
“I probably put more practice into hurling than I did into football as a kid,” he recalled on Off the Ball. “I played Gaelic all the way up to minor. I was involved with the Cork minor team, I was in the panel when we won the Munster championship, we beat Kerry down in Killarney. That was my point, I was right on the cusp [of choosing one or the other].”
Meyler choose football. So, naturally, did Grealish. But their early grounding in the GAA, and in playing different sports, was far more of a help than a hindrance as they pursued their sporting dreams.
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