IT WAS WHILE looking at Aidan O’Shea’s tally of games for Mayo, that Longford veteran Mickey Quinn first suspected that he might not be far off that figure.
Quinn was carrying out research for a second-tier championship in Gaelic Football, trying to work out how many games that players were playing in the top level counties compared to the weaker ones. He found that O’Shea, who made his inter-county debut in 2009, had racked up around 140 games.
Quinn’s senior debut for Longford came in 2012 after returning from a three-year stint with AFL side Essendon. Knowing that he and O’Shea weren’t that far apart, he began investigating his own playing career.
“I was around the 90 mark,” he tells The42 about what his search showed up. Word of his centenary filtered around the Longford camp before eventually reaching the ears of manager Billy O’Loughlin.
“I was trying to figure out where I was and just between the jigs and reels and chatting to other lads, I think it was the middle of the league at some stage [when I reached 100 games]. I probably mentioned it in passing to a few of the lads, and then Billy O’Loughlin took it upon himself to mark it. We had a team meeting and I didn’t realise what was going on. It was a bit of a surprise for me, I was prepping for a game and Mam, Dad, [wife] Kate and [daughter] Alice arrived out.”
Quinn was touched by the gesture to mark his landmark achievement earlier this month by presenting him with a framed Longford jersey. That 100-match appearance record will sit nicely alongside the one he earned while in the AFL, where he made the quickest debut of a GAA player in the Australian league. The Killoe clubman appreciates the efforts of Longford GAA to include his family in the occasion too, but regrets that other longstanding servants of Longford football never received such an honour during their career.
His fellow clubmate, and former Longford forward, Seán McCormack, comes to mind, as does Donal McElligott of the famous Mullinalaghta club.
“Dermot Brady put in a trojan amount of years with Longford as did Paul Barden,” Quinn continues. “I’d love to know what their numbers were like and there’s a database there that you’d love to explore and see where lads are at.
“They must be up near the 150 mark easily. I’m only playing 10 years whereas Paul played for 15 or 16 years and Dermot was pretty similar. You’d love to see something like that happen on a more regular basis.
“The retirement comes fairly abruptly and you hate to see guys thrown to the side and move on, but I suppose that’s the joys and sorrows with sport. It is very much like that in every facet.
“It was something different and something I’ve been talking about a lot myself, this disconnect that sometimes starts to happen between players, management and county boards and family. In a small county, you have to kind of create that community feel and that’s something that Billy and his management have taken on board.
“Players are probably starting to realise that there’s more to playing county football with Longford than just wearing the blue and gold jersey. Having that community vibe around the place means that everyone’s in it together, and it makes it more appealing for lads to play.”
Quinn continues by referring to the system used by AFL teams to track playing careers. He explains that each player in Australia is assigned a club number, which monitors the number of games they play throughout their time on the books.
“It’s little things like that that give a bit of community and the feeling that you’re part of something. And you’re proud to be part of something. I’d love to see something like that [in GAA]. Who’s job it is or who would take it upon themselves? I don’t know. But you get an appreciation for what players have given.”
Quinn’s first season with the Longford footballers in 2012 resulted in promotion to Division 2, and four championship games between the Leinster and All-Ireland qualifier competitions. Coming home from Australia, Quinn anticipated that Longford might be able to enjoy an average of five championship games every season.
But during his recent research, Quinn discovered that that’s not quite how things have panned out for Longford as they averaged around three games every season. But the lack of silverware hasn’t deterred him from coming back each year. He has a deeper, more personal motivation for representing his county.
“One thing I missed massively in Australia was once you played a game and came home, you weren’t coming home to family and friends to have that debrief or chat, sitting down around the kitchen table having a cup of tea. You can thrash it out whether it was a win or loss. Talking to Mam and Dad over the phone [while in Australia], they mightn’t have seen the game.
“That’s what I live for, the buzz after it that you’re catching up with family and friends. They’re down on the pitch after whether you have a win or a loss, and that 15 or 20 minutes after the game is what I live for. Your family are able to come onto the pitch or they catch up with you afterwards. They’re involved and are part of it.
“Even with Covid, it hit both ways that they weren’t able to go to games and I took half the year out, and you start to realise that family was my why. After that relegation play-off down in Laois [this year], not that we celebrated it but it was a huge bonus for us to beat Laois and to have family and friends there. They’re our All-Ireland finals.”
The second-tier championship has already begun, after Wicklow and Offaly won their respective Tailteann Cup preliminary round ties at the weekend. After exiting the Leinster SFC at the hands of Westmeath, Longford are also in the Tailteann Cup and will begin their campaign by hosting Fermanagh at Glennon Brothers Pearse Park this weekend.
Quinn would like to see a second-tier competition that offers more guaranteed games to the competing teams down the line, but is happy that the first steps towards that point have been taken.
“We’ve probably lost one or two players early doors, but I think most counties are in a similar position.
“It’s one of those things that personally I really want to go after it. The breakdown of the north and south has made it a little bit harder to get excited for or plan for. It’s not the best format for the long run but it’s a start and hopefully with a few tweaks, it’s something that Division 3 and 4 teams can use to springboard themselves for the following season to push on and improve. We’d hope to be in that position.
“We’re a very young side and we’re probably still developing physically too. And there’s new management so it’s going to be interesting, but I’m looking forward to it.”
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