Eoin Doyle reflects on 12 years as an inter-county player
Eoin Doyle always led from the front for Kildare Photo: ©INPHO/James Crombie
This week Eoin Doyle sat down with PAT COSTELLO to reflect on his long career in the Lilywhite jersey.
So, Eoin, when did you finally make the decision to retire from intercounty football?
I suppose it's been in the back of my mind for a year or two now, Pat. The time commitment doesn't get any smaller at the intercounty scene with stuff going on career wise and personal wise and even football wise. It's definitely a young man's game.
Was there as temptation to hang on and see who the new manager might be and decide then?
That temptation was there but I don't think I it would change my decision to be honest. I'm excited to see who it’s going to be. I'm excited to see how the team is going to develop as a result of that. This was my decision and I was happy with it.
Retiring players say sending out the text to the group was the hardest thing, was that the same for you?
No being honest. I kept it very brief, just told the lads that that was it and wished him all the best of luck and I just kind of left it straight away.
I suppose the hardest thing I found over the last few days is just chatting to the lads, the core group of lads, the likes of Paul Cribbin, Kevin Feely, Daniel Flynn and Neil Flynn, Hylo, Mark Donnellan and these lads that were in there for the guts of my 12 years. We've had so many low days and a couple of high days and you go through that with them and when they're kind of reaching out to you and letting you know how they feel with the departure, etc, that was tough and that pulled a couple of heartstrings all right.
The last few years have been frustrating for supporters, for management, same for players, same for you, I guess?
I don't think performances by players were anywhere where they should have been. I think that's always the first place that you look at, but for whatever reason, it just didn't materialise into what it could have become. I don't know why. I do know, and I can honestly say, that it wasn't down to a lack of effort or time commitment by players or by management or anything like that. It just it never materialised, and this year in particular. When you've had poor years and poor league campaigns, you usually pick up a result somewhere along the way and it gives you that heart and a bit of confidence to go again. But this year, it just got harder and harder. It's just extremely frustrating.
Proof of that was that nobody walked away, everybody was trying harder than ever?
We were in the Tailteann Cup this year and depending how next year goes at a provincial perspective we could be there again. But it was very important for us to quickly understand we were there because we had a league campaign to put us at a high enough position not to be there. We had two games in Leinster to be in a position not to be there and we didn't win any of those. So, we are where we deserve to be. Of course, it was frustrating and nobody wanted to be there, we all wanted to be competing in different competitions and competing for promotion but sport doesn't always go the way you want it to go.
When did you actually become involved with the county scene and at what age?
It was probably at minor level with Bryan Murphy in 2009, I was playing minor hurling at the time. I was probably more of a hurler than a footballer back then. An opportunity came then maybe around the middle of that year and Murph was on to me to do it. I went in with him and I absolutely loved it.
Jesus, Bryan Murphy's the most passionate, honest person you come across. He installed the grá of football and of Kildare football in me that that never left me. He was absolutely a big part of what followed for me. Then played on the U21s in 2012 and Geezer would have been a selector of that team. At the end of that campaign, he had asked me in with the Seniors. They were halfway through the league campaign so it was kind of daunting and exciting all at the same time.
That was a team of big characters under Geezer and they had come through great times and huge disappointments as well. What was it like coming into that squad?
It was daunting and it's gas like, I know 12 years is a long time, but there's certain elements that will never, ever leave me. I remember I was in Limerick at the time and when I started all I had to worry about was passing a couple of exams in UL each semester, two or three exams. Whereas now at the end of your career, you have your own profession and family and houses and whatnot. It's just so, so much has changed.
It was daunting, you were going in and the likes of James Kavanagh, Dermot Earley, Johnny Doyle, Ronan Sweeney, Andriú MacLochlainn, obviously Leper and Bolton. There was so many big personalities and lads that obviously I would have looked up to at that time, so exciting and daunting at the same time.
You played under five different managers. Do you learn from each of those managers and then put it to your own benefit, rather than pick one in particular?
Yeah, absolutely I've learned from them all definitely. I think when you get information, you can either take it on board or leave it, you get to pick and choose what's for you and there isn't one of those managers that I didn't learn different things from, some more than others maybe based off the amount of time you were there or your level of involvement with them. There are things that I would use that McGeeney would have said to me back from day one that I'd still use today. Jason Ryan, although the tenure might not have been as successful maybe as we would have wished I still learned about how to manage my body and how to manage my load through him, because they would have had an awful lot of injuries there. Cian from a tactical perspective I just learnt so much and I was probably at an age then when I was probably most content with being a Kildare player at that time. Up until then I probably had a bit of imposter syndrome as such, but it was under Cian where I felt I probably played my best football and felt most comfortable within the group. I talk about that core group again. The Feely’s, the Mick O’Grady's, the Donnellan’s all those lads that we were all kind of that mid 20s range kind of age when it just felt like we were a driving force of that kind of time. Then Jack with multiple All-Irelands and again you learn so much there. Glen as well, just about what it means to play for play for Kildare and the passion behind it. There wasn't one where I wouldn't say I didn't learn anything from.
There were some great occasions during your time, whether as player or captain, obviously there was some horrible occasions in Croke Park as well. How did that, I suppose, impinge on you?
Like it is difficult. When I first came into the set up with McGeeney, those lads were training to win the All-Ireland, there was no two ways about that. That's what the ambition was like. I know it's probably well-documented you're going to have more bad days than good days in sport. I know the good days for me in my time wasn't picking up silverware it was probably good results along the way or good occasions. The lows are incredibly difficult at times, like none more than this year but the message I would have always portrayed is that when it comes to Kildare football, the only really people that are important are the players. When you have that bond between the players, all you want to ever do is to get back into training and to be with the teammates like that was the most important thing after a tough day or even after a win. After a tough day I was never ringing anyone other than my team-mates to try and get to the bottom of it. It builds resilience and you have to persevere at these things. It's obviously a topical thing now, but you look at Armagh, like they hadn't won a game in Ulster for five years and now they are All-Ireland champions five years later. It's time and its perseverance. We don't have Leinster medals coming out of our back pockets or All-Ireland medals in Kildare. It takes an awful lot to get there. At the same time, we absolutely lacked consistency. We lacked it, not even from manager to manager, but in seasons with a manager every second year and that's something that I don't have a quick fix for. I think it is perseverance. I think it is putting structures in place from the top down that are going to allow sustainable progression over a long period of time as opposed to 2017 having a good year with Cian and then getting relegated from Division 1. Then even within that season then going from being relegated and not losing a match to losing the Carlow to driving on to the super eight, that's only one season. That is a level of inconsistency.
You mentioned Geezer and Armagh and he's there ten years. Do the thoughts go through you or the players’ minds to say, maybe if Geezer has stayed for another year or two, we might have been the Armagh of this year?
Not me anyway, to be honest, I was in there for the tail end of Kieran McGeeney and he was brilliant and he did loads for Kildare football and he did loads for me personally as well. Like I have so much time for him, but whatever had happened that X number of years ago, it happened. He wasn't dwelling on us, he was preparing Armagh the following season or whoever he was with and I think it was time for us to move on as well and to put the baton down. Who knows what might have happened or may have happened, but he was absolutely brilliant. Talk about Kieran being involved, Cian also involved in the backroom for Galway, these have been people that have had big impacts on Kildare football in the last 10 or 15 years.
You’ve probably joined the Kildare set-up around the same time that the Dublin team became the Dublin team that we’ve known for the last 10-12 years. Was that difficult to watch all the time or did you always feel we can beat them?
People will say I’m crazy but any Dublin game we played no matter how good or how many All-Ireland they were going for I had full belief that we were going to win the game. People say I’m bonkers absolutely and I can see how or why they’d say that but I believe in the good players, there’s not a game I go into with Kevin Feely that I won’t believe that we can win. That’s the respect that I have for that man, it’s off the charts. There isn’t any game I’ve gone into when he’s lining up beside me when I say we don’t have a chance here. We were coming up against one of the best teams of all time and not only did they dominate Leinster the dominated the All-Ireland series too and that goes unnoticed at times. I think Leinster gets a hard rap at times because no one could get close to them.
Am I raging that my career coincided with that? No. The fact is they set the bar high and it was our job to get up to them and we never did. We closed the gap at times, became more competitive at different times but I certainly don’t have any excuses of qualms at all, why did my time with Kildare have to coincide with that, that’s where the bar was set and we didn’t reach that bar.
During that time too obviously you suffered a few heavy defeats in Croke Park, did that leave a scar?
I don’t know to be honest, there was a couple of Dublin ones there for sure and the Kerry one which were big, big defeats. I can’t answer. Did it diminish my belief or did it affect me going into big games I don’t think it did but subconsciously, I don’t know. Did we perform at a level in Croke Park that we would be satisfied with, at times no. But this is back to this idea of Kildare putting in consistent runs of form. In order to do that, structures from the top down need to be in place to allow that to happen, sustainably over a long period of time. We need to have pathways and structures in place to allow managements and teams and everything else to have the opportunity to do that.
There was always a gap between U21 and senior now the grade is U20 there is an even bigger gap there. It is a big gap and this I what I mean about things being in place to allow those players to be ready to play senior football when their time comes. Very few people are going to go straight from U20 to competing for an All-Ireland final. Michael Murphy, Paddy McBrearty, Ciaran Kilkenny’s of this world are kind of the exceptions of that. I keep using this word structures, they need to be there and pathways need to be there to allow these lads from whatever successful underage team, it doesn’t even matter if it was successful or not, there’s still good players in unsuccessful teams that can be brought forward. It’s an area I think Kildare, as an organisation, needs to look at.
