Cill na Martra boss John Evans shares the advice he’ll tell his players ahead of Sunday’s showdown
BY SEÁN HOLLAND
THEY say insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. Well, if those results have brought you to an All-Ireland final, why would you do anything different?
‘Don’t change’ – that’s the big message Cill na Martra manager John Evans has told his team this week as they prepare for their All-Ireland intermediate football final against St Patrick’s Cullyhanna of Armagh in Croke Park on Sunday (3.30pm).
Before looking ahead to the biggest game in Cill na Martra’s history, Evans reflects on his side's narrow one-point victory over St Kevins Castlerea last Saturday. Having gone into the semi-final as heavy favourites with the bookmakers, Evans reiterated that being labelled favourites in intermediate football has very little substance.
‘As I said before, the favourite tag at the intermediate level is ridiculous stuff,’ he said. You just don’t know the standard of each county, but one thing we did know is that this team had beaten the Galway and Mayo winners, two traditional Gaelic football counties, so to beat those champions, you have to be hugely respected,’ Evans explained.
Having come through a tough battle to eventually win by a solitary point, 2-10 to 0-15, the Cill na Martra boss was delighted with the character shown by his players.
‘I was very pleased with their resilience. We got a black card and lost our wing back to two yellows and on another day those things could have been our downfall. Even with those setbacks we came back and went at it harder again. We got the two goals when the black card was still invoked, so we’re not easily thrown off the scent at all,’ Evans said.
With a quick turnaround to the final, the Cill na Martra boss explained that this week has been all about getting the bodies right for another huge task on Sunday.
‘After Saturday we had to give them plenty of rest and recovery because your energy levels would be absolutely bottomed out after the game like that,’ he explained.
‘There’s a lot of razzmatazz after the game and you have a long journey home, so you’ve to give fellas plenty of rest. There’s a couple of rivers around Cill na Martra that the lads would go into even though it’s baltic cold; they’d still do it and they’ve got a programme for stretching. Chris Lynch our S&C coach, he gets them working on that and that’s about the size of it, there’s no point in overdoing it.’
Having managed his home club Laune Rangers in Kerry to senior All-Ireland glory in 1996, Evans was asked what advice he will give his team going into the biggest game of their lives?
‘Look, it’s nearly 30 years since we played that. Now it is like you’re almost talking a different language but I’ll be giving the same advice, which is to stay calm and keep your feet on the ground, just to stay nice and steady,’ Evans explained.
‘The biggest thing I would have said to the lads 30 years ago, and have said to the lads now, is don’t change. Don’t change your character. Don’t change your boots. Don’t change your hairstyle. Don’t change anything. Keep the same things that have got you here. Don’t go changing for something now because it’s Croke Park, because you’re not going to perform.
‘I don’t want to see lads landing on with mullets, or highlights, or dyed blonde hair just because they’re in front of the cameras the next day!’ he joked.
While he doesn’t want his players to change or do anything different, for Evans his pre-match methods now aren’t what he would have used in his role 30 years ago.
‘Well, the big change for me is that 25/30 years ago, I’d have been in the dressing-room making a big hullabaloo, driving on the team but now I do all my talking beforehand and well in advance of the game,’ he said.
‘I think keeping lads focused, using simple language, and explaining the simplicity of the day is key. Just explaining what the lads have to do collectively and individually on Saturday is what I’d be harping on about really now.’
