MICHAEL QUINN INSISTS it’s possible to win big for both club and country this weekend despite just 19 hours separating two of the biggest games of his career.
The former AFL player will make his Ireland debut in the International Rules series at 7pm on Saturday evening at Croke Park.
Then on Sunday afternoon at 2pm, he’ll lead out Emmet Og Killoe as captain of the Longford champions who take on Portlaoise in the AIB Leinster club championship semi-finals.
No Longford club has ever reached the provincial football final so history is at hand if Quinn isn’t too jaded to deliver another big performance.
Monaghan’s Hughes brothers, Darren and Kieran, as well as Cork’s Paul Kerrigan, are still active at club level too though they will at least have eight days following the Ireland game before their respective provincial club deciders.
Quinn, 25, won’t have such leeway and the reality is that his club will take the hit on Sunday if he’s not fully recovered from the international test.
“I think the body will hold up,” said Quinn. “It’s more getting the head right, trying to organise everything and make sure it’s all in place.
It’s strange to have November as your busiest time of the year – everyone wants September to be their busy month. But, for me, it’s great to be playing for Ireland and on the club side of things it’s brilliant to be still going in November.
“It’s a difficult challenge doing the two. It’s about putting things in place so that I can give my best for both.
“I do think personally that I can give it my all on both days. I’d prefer to have it this way than having to make a decision and having regrets further down the line.
“To have missed out on something and to have chosen one over the other, that would have been tough. So I’ll deal with whatever happens on Saturday and Sunday and hopefully it will be a good weekend on both fronts.”
Quinn admitted that he did wonder at one stage weeks back if it was possible to juggle all his GAA commitments.
“Back in September, in the lead up to the county final, I had already been involved in the Irish set-up for five or six weeks,” reflected Quinn. “I was thinking, ‘it’s getting busy here’.
I’d been training Friday, Saturday and Sunday every week for the last five or six weeks. It was building up and I did look into stepping away. Joe was very understanding about being lenient when certain games were coming up, to allow me to try and balance both.
Quinn might have been expected to play for Ireland sooner having made his AFL debut back in 2009. He played eight games in total for Essendon across 2009 and 2010 before being delisted in late 2011 and returning home.
He said a mixture of form and injuries ruled him out of the Ireland scene until now.
“I think I’ve probably just improved as a player too,” said Quinn. “When I came back from Australia, I was brought in as a county senior at the age of 21 and people probably considered me experienced but it was still a young age. I’ve probably matured a lot more since then.”
Quinn has kept in touch with some of his Aussie buddies but doesn’t have any regrets about cutting short his stay Down Under.
“What’s happening now with Ireland and the club, this is the kind of reward that stops you looking back and thinking like that,” he said.
