LAST UPDATE | 9 Mar 2023
SEANIE JOHNSTON HAS admitted for the first time that he regrets his infamous transfer to Kildare, a ‘dark time’ in his career which coincided with him gambling ‘crazy amounts of money’.
Former Cavan captain Johnston opened up in detail for the first time about the 2012 move to Kieran McGeeney’s Kildare and said the irony was that he never truly felt comfortable playing for the Leinster side.
The talented attacker, who later returned to play for Cavan, and who wishes to one day manage the Breffni following a spell coaching under Mickey Graham, conceded that his ‘ego was massively hit’ after being dropped by then Cavan manager Val Andrews.
He insisted McGeeney wasn’t to blame for pushing through the transfer to Kildare and was adamant that he never received any money or incentives for moving.
Speaking on the BBC’s GAA Social podcast, Johnston said the entire episode took a considerable toll on him, particularly around the time of the 2012 qualifier game between Kildare and Cavan at Breffni Park when he came on for Kildare and scored a point.
“I think the most important point for me to say, and it’s probably something I haven’t been forthcoming enough with, is to say that looking back now, I was wrong in a lot of things I did and it’s probably taken me until, well, it’s taken me until nearly 2023 to admit it,” said Johnston.
“As you get older, and supposedly and hopefully wiser, you learn. Without a doubt, at that stage I was 25 or 26 years of age at the time, I had worked my backside off in my head to be the best player that I could possibly be and I got too big for my boots is the first main thing I would like to say.
“It was all I ever wanted to do really, was play for Cavan. I had put so much time and effort into it and I had got to a stage where I felt I was a pretty good player and I was captain of the team at the time and I was hurt, I was badly hurt.
My ego was massively hit I would say. Then you get into a situation where things start spiralling.”
Johnston was surprised by the amount of attention and media interest generated by the move and recalled how at one stage, while playing a game of golf, a TV crew turned up at the course in an attempt to interview him. He said on another occasion his parents felt compelled to leave the country due to the coverage.
The player himself admitted that he got interested in gambling around this time.
“When I was gambling I wasn’t thinking of the transfer,” said Johnston. “I remember I was in a mate of mine’s house and he just said, ‘Come on, we’ll put $15 into a Paddy Power account and we’ll play blackjack.
“And that’s what it was, €15 or $15. I lost. I went home and it was back to the ‘This isn’t going to beat me’ mentality and I put €30 in and out of nowhere, within I’d say a couple of weeks’ time, I remember sitting in the house one night at about 2.30am and I had €200 on Gael Monfils to beat Victor Troicki in a tennis match and a double with Vasco da Gama to beat a Brazilian soccer team. I was just going, ‘I’m in a bit of a hole here’.
For me, gambling… when I say it’s not an issue for me, I don’t feel it is an issue for me now, maybe that’s naive of me, but I wouldn’t go into a bookies, like. But I was playing blackjack for crazy amounts of money, €200 a hand.
“And the problem with online gambling is that it goes out of your account straight away but it doesn’t go into it for about three days when you win, so I spent the whole time looking at my online banking account going, ‘Oh my God’, because it’s all going down until eventually you win and that won’t go in for a couple of days. Yeah, a dark time I’d say.”
Asked if there was a direct link between the transfer furore and the gambling, Johnston suggested there was.
“Well I can’t say that that was the only reason that I did it but in my head at that stage, I was trying to forget stuff I would say and it was giving me an unbelievable buzz, it was amazing and it was dangerous some of the stuff… like, I was doing it in places where you’re (not) meant to be doing stuff anyway, like work, everything, going out to the car, bang, not good, not in a good place,” he said.
Father-of-four Johnston said he was fortunate not to be left with any debts as a result of the gambling.
“I got very lucky, I’ll be absolutely honest – I won a lot of what I lost back, in one big scoop over a day or two days, and I stopped,” he said.
If you need help with gambling addiction, get in touch with Gamblers Anonymous via one of their regional contacts, Problem Gambling Ireland on 089 241 5401.
You can listen to the full podcast with Seanie Johnston here.
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