Paul Fennessy

IN THE CLASSIC 1997 documentary of the Lions’ Tour of South Africa, the coach Jim Telfer gives a memorable speech.

“There’s two kinds of players,” he told his team. “There are honest ones and the rest.

“The honest player gets up in the morning and looks in the mirror and sets his standard, sets his stall out and says: ‘I’m going to get better. I’m going to get better. I’m going to get better.’

“He doesn’t complain about the food or the bed or the referees or all these sorts of things. These are just peripheral things that weak players are always complaining about. The dishonest player.”

On his appearance on the ‘Stick to Football’ podcast earlier this year, Tom Brady made a similar point.

Brady was famously a 199th draft pick and not exactly a star player during his college career before going on to become a seven-time Super Bowl winner and widely perceived as the greatest quarterback of all time.

Recalling how he went from being an average player to a superstar, the NFL legend said: “It’s such an easy thing to blame the person who’s not in the room

“Do players in today’s age in soccer still want to be held accountable to an Alex Ferguson who’s saying: ‘You’re not doing good enough. You’re not prepared. You’re not training hard enough. I need you to care more. I need you to take better care of your body.’

“Because I wasn’t the best, I had to develop a lot of confidence in myself. 

“I was growing into the athlete I wanted to be, and I would very much make excuses why I wasn’t performing at my best.

“A sports psychologist [at the University of Michigan], Greg Harden, said to me: “Why don’t you quit bitching about all the things you’re not getting?

“How about you do the best with whatever opportunities you get. Stop worrying about what the other quarterbacks are getting. Stop worrying about what the coach is saying to you. Every time you get in there, you bring the juice. You bring the energy. You bring the enthusiasm. You treat practice like a game.

“If you just decide to go out there, and you’re blaming everybody else, where does that get you?

“So I started to change my attitude. And I didn’t have a lot of confidence in myself, and when you don’t have a lot of confidence in yourself, you blame other people.

“When you gain confidence, you start pointing the finger at yourself.”

Speaking in a club statement earlier on Wednesday, manager Alan Reynolds defended the recent media blackout issued by Bohemians.

“Ultimately, a game was brought forward by the league that gave Shamrock Rovers an extra 24 hours’ rest before a massive game against us. It’s not right. It’s not right for Bohs, it’s not right for St Pat’s, and it’s not right for anyone who believes in a level playing field.

“When both clubs have a two-day rest in between match days and the league turns around and decides to give one of them an extra 24 hours, that’s just not on. We’re not talking about one club having five days and the other having six days or whatever. The smaller the gap is, the bigger the advantage an extra day gives.”

Reynolds may be right that the extra 24 hours made a slight difference, but it hardly warranted the dramatic response.

And as Stephen Bradley pointed out last week, in recent years, there have been countless occasions where Rovers were at a disadvantage in the league owing to their substantial European commitments. Yet they are still on the verge of winning their sixth title in seven seasons.

I can’t speak for all my colleagues, but personally, it doesn’t bother me when a club takes that particular stance – there are plenty of great stories and people to talk to elsewhere in the League of Ireland and beyond, so there is no need to rely on one club.

But from the Gypsies’ perspective, the decision made Bohs look weak, like they were getting their excuses in early.

The Dublin club were failing to heed Brady’s advice, preferring to blame others rather than holding themselves accountable for performances and results.

Having been on a seven-match streak, over the course of a week following the media ban’s implementation, their season has collapsed, suffering a surprise loss at home to Waterford in the FAI Cup semi-final and seeing their title hopes effectively ended by their biggest rivals.

There is plenty to admire about Bohs. They are a well-run club with talented players who have produced some scintillating football this year.

The club’s marketing initiatives and their bravery in supporting Palestinian footballers have been similarly commendable.

But in this instance, they have got it badly wrong.

Asked last week before the Bohs game whether the title race felt any different to previous years as multiple teams were competing to win the league, Bradley responded: “There’s nothing different; it’s us. It doesn’t matter if there are five teams, it’s us. It’s always been us, and it’s been about us.

“That doesn’t change. We’ve been in these situations before; we understand what it takes to go the distance. We’ve been there so many times, won and lost leagues.

“We know what it’s about, and it’s always been about us. And that won’t change. Whether it’s two teams or five teams, it’s always about us.”

Even if Bohs were communicating different sentiments internally, the media ban sent out the wrong psychological message and could easily have subliminally affected the players. The way the team mentally collapsed in the dying stages against Rovers suggested the pressure was getting to them.

In sport, the most successful players and teams hold themselves accountable and don’t worry or complain about external factors.