Flying Farragher revelling in new midfield role

Date Published: 16-Jun-2010

STEPHEN GLENNON

IT may be only June, but one player who is having a year to remember is Galway midfielder Ger Farragher. Having spearheaded the Tribesmen’s victorious runs to Walsh Cup and National League glory, the Castlegar man has received a plethora of individual accolades.

He was awarded the Vodafone Player of the Month for April, before he subsequently collected the Vodafone Player of the League award following Galway’s final victory over Cork. Farragher was also voted the GPA’s Player of the Month for both April and May and, in the process, became the first player in the history of the Association to secure back-to-back monthly awards.

Yet, while Farragher – an All-Ireland minor winner in 1999 and 2000 – is playing the best hurling of his senior career to date, he admits there were times in the past when he wondered if he would make it as a top senior inter-county hurler, particularly during the Ger Loughnane era when he was dogged by injury and, consequently, mostly used as a fringe player.

“You would think that some days. You would say, ‘Jesus, what am I training for?’ When you give this big commitment, you want to be playing. But you can’t give in to those thoughts and you can’t open your mouth about them either,” says Farragher.

“So, you just have to keep the head down and keep going. Eventually, your chance will come along and then it is up to you. If you do go mouthing, you only put pressure on yourself and people might not always be as supportive when you do get your chance.”

It is hard to imagine that a player of Farragher’s tremendous ability would have those self-doubts, especially given the success he enjoyed with Galway during his minor days. Indeed, he is one of a select group of players who has played in three All-Ireland minor finals, 1999 to 2001.

Yet, he says, he never saw himself as someone special; just a player with a great love for the game. A player who wanted to make a difference.“I suppose, different (senior) managements probably had different opinions about me. I also had my fair share of injuries, so probably a lot of things contributed (to being sidelined in recent years). I am out now though in my favourite position, in midfield, and I seem to be playing alright there.”

Of course, the 27-year-old, who first made his championship debut for the Tribesmen against Clare in 2002, has put in the work to elevate his standing within the panel. Through his displays during trial games and training, he was handed the No.8 jersey for the victory over Cork in last year’s qualifiers and he has been a permanent fixture in this sector ever since.

“It was one of our last matches last year that the management put me out field. They seem to say, ‘sure, we will give him a few games out there’. As I said, it is probably my favourite position on the pitch and I just seem to get a new lease of life.”

In many respects, it was a brave move by the management to deploy Farragher from the inside line to the centre of the park, particularly as Farragher had been Galway’s top scorer on route to their last All-Ireland final appearance in 2005.

Then again, Farragher says that is one striking feature of the current management regime – they are very open minded and they are more than willing to give players a go. “In the Walsh Cup this year, they played Donal Barry from our club,” continues the Castlegar man.” We played Laois, and Donal probably hadn’t the best of starts and had a difficult first five or 10 minutes.

“Now, the management could have made a change, but instead they gave him that little bit of encouragement he needed, told him to keep it going. Against Wexford the last day, he gave one of the best performances on the day. He is some man to cover ground.“

So, it just shows you what can happen when a player is given a chance and that player trains hard. And Donal has trained hard this year. Maybe if more fellows were given chances like that, you wouldn’t know what kind of players you would find in the county,” adds the dead ball specialist, who is clearly enjoying the Galway adventure in Leinster judging by his man of the match display in the opening game.