HE STEPPED AWAY from inter-county life in November 2012 but a year on Mossy Quinn is still preparing for big Gaelic football games.
St Vincent’s progress through Dublin and Leinster has taken them to next Sunday’s AIB provincial club SFC final with Quinn shooting the lights out in attack.
Dublin’s run to September glory put the club game in cold storage and the games then came thick and fast for Quinn and his St Vincent’s teammates.
Quinn’s wife gave birth to their daughter Clodagh in October just before the flurry of matches.
“My wife had a baby the day before the Dublin quarter-final against Sylvester’s, so in the 22 days (after) she was born we had five games.
“Stuff like that just gives you a different appreciation for the time that you have, other stuff outside playing inter-county football. Having a life outside football, it’s huge, particularly weekends and stuff like that.
“I don’t even mean going out, I just mean having time, because when you’re with inter-county, nearly every weekend is gone. The workload with the club is a lot less than the county.
“Even when you do go training, you’re fresh. You know you’re only there for two hours and you don’t have meetings after or you’re not back the next day. I think it allows you to just go down and enjoy it.”
He’s at peace with his decision to bring the curtain down on his inter-county career.
“Playing for Dublin was brilliant and I loved every minute of it. You see the young guys coming through and the speed the play at is just a different level. It was the right thing to do at the time.
“Chasing Jack McCaffrey is no fun so I knew. And I hadn’t been playing as much as you’d like and I think it made the decision easier. So I’m happy with club football at the moment.”
Pic: INPHO/Donall Farmer
Quinn has been in stunning form for St Vincent’s recently and fired home 1-8 against Summerhill in their Leinster semi-final win. His desire to keep working at his game remains strong.
“Do I think my best years are ahead of me? I don’t know. I still try to improve every time I train. I still think that I can improve as a footballer. Whether that’s naive or not, I don’t know.
“But every time I go out, there’s still things that I feel I can improve on. We’ve good coaches and players in the club, I feel I can learn off them and I can keep improving.”
