TYRONE FOOTBALLER CATHAL McCarron is set to release his autobiography, Out of Control, later this year.
The Dromore defender took to Twitter yesterday to publicise the book, saying he was “delighted” to release it and that he’s “getting there on this great journey of life.”
The 2008 All-Ireland winner hit the headlines in October 2013 when it emerged that he was struggling with a gambling addiction. This led to several other problems in McCarron’s personal life including theft and his involvement in a pornographic video.
The book, which is ghostwritten by former Clare goalkeeper Christy O’Connor, discusses McCarron’s sporting life along with his addiction and problems.
Soon after the news of his gambling problem became high-profile, the 2013 All-star nominee moved to London and began playing with Round Towers and lined out for the London senior side.
Since he has returned to Tyrone, McCarron has made significant progress in his recovery. He has been a key player for Mickey Harte’s side over the past two years, helping them to an All-Ireland semi-final last year and featuring in last weekend’s Ulster semi-final draw with Cavan,
The picture of the book that the defender tweeted clearly shows the blurb.
Cathal McCarron is a 28-year-old inter-county footballer from Tyrone.A winner of one All-Ireland senior medal and three Ulster titles, he was nominated for an All-Star in 2013 and 2015.Yet behind all that success lay an extremely dark secret, a gambling addiction that cost him hundreds of thousands of pounds, endless relationships and, almost, his life.The illness took such a grip on McCarron that he was forced to leave the country but the addiction led him down an even darker path and into a world of total depravity where he was willing to do anything for money.Out of Control is a sports story unlike any other, a tale of success, lies, deceit, theft, recovery, rehabilitation and, ultimately, redemption.
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Sounds worrying
@geraldo: he has a point about thr penalty count. When your winning handy enough there’s no excuse to give away penalties.
Hard to stay disciplined and motivated if you are winning by 50pts. The big problem is the overlap with international windows. It effectively means each club has to have two teams. If there were fewer games it would be more competitive. A pool or conference system is the only way to go without asking unions to reduce the number of teams they have.
@Rudiger McMonihan: few clubs lose a whole team to the international windows. Maybe one in each country would lose 15. I think a 2 division league might work but as soon as the SA teams come in it would be them and the 3 Irish sides. So maybe not.
@Chris Mc: I think this year you need to include all four provinces. If Connacht had played all their games they would be second in conference B.
@Chris Mc: no union will ever have relagation, would the FIR, WRU or IRFU risk one or more of their professional teams being 2nd division teams? Glasgow, Edinburgh, Zebre, Benetton lose as many players as Leinster to international call ups and have nowhere near the same resources. Its little surprise Leinster are walking it against those teams.
@Rudiger McMonihan: think we touched on this before, clubs need the 10/11 home games. The proposed new rugby calendar if it gets agreed will sort it out. With no overlap durning internationals. It has a 29/30 week club season, but I think it would be the end of the HCup. As the French Top 14 takes 29 weeks and if given the choice between changing their league system or leaving the HCup the French would leave the HCup. The Pro 16 and English Prem would have maybe 5 weeks that they could fit a new European rugby cup in (Current HCup, takes 9 weeks), but no way can the French fit in a 29 round league and 9 round HCup in 30 weeks, and if there are no French is it really worth it?
@Kingshu: yeah I said they need to reduce the number of club games. Pre-covid Super rugby teams played far fewer games (16 + 3 knock outs). The best players go on to play internationals after (14 in a normal year). Then the rest play in the mitre cup (10 + 2 KO’s). So everyone gets game time, the calendar is more coherent and the games are more competitive. The way our calendar is set up is ridiculous. There is so much overlap between pro14, Heineken cup and internationals. We bounce between the 3 all year too. Teams dont get enough time together to build momentum and their position on the table is often down to how well their 3rd or 4th choice player is.
@Rudiger McMonihan: The New global calendar proposal
Is
Autumn internationals: October-November
Club and European games: December-July with a 7 week break for
Six Nations: April-May and same time the Rugby Championship: April-May. Players get a break from end of July to start of Oct.
Thats a 30 week club season with 7 week break with no games played durning 6 nations/rugbt championship. I just can’t see the Top 14 fitting their league and Hcup into that window.
@Con Cussed: have they not lost 2 games so far. They are a bit off the top 3 to be fair.
@Kingshu: I am with you on this. The system that has been cobbled together over the years has suited the Irish set-up more than anyone else; its deficiencies are increasingly obvious but it is hard to see that there will be changes that will be beneficial in the round.
The underlying problem is that there are only 2 countries – England and France – with the resources to support a domestic professional ‘club’ set-up. The rest have to rely on subsidies from the mens’ senior international game and an artificial cobbled-together league combining the remaining countries.
For us the real focus of the ‘club’ game is the Heineken Cup, but this can only really exist if the English and French clubs want it to, and only a minority of them are really committed