Declan Bogue

A FUNNY THING happened in the summer of 2021 that became a Sliding Doors moment for Paddy Tally.

Having coached Tyrone to the 2003 All-Ireland football championship, Tally spent years after in the backroom teams of Derry, Down and popped up in Galway under Kevin Walsh.

After delivering an impressive Sigerson Cup success with St Mary’s University Belfast in 2017, Down made him manager ahead of the 2019 season.

His three seasons were spent in a never-ending turnover of players and after losing to Donegal in the preliminary round of Ulster in 2021, his time with Down came to an end.

Wind the clock on 13 months, he was standing on the steps of the Hogan Stand lifting Sam Maguire as coach of Kerry, 20 seasons on from his first as Tyrone coach in 2003.

Given the fathomless range of emotions in the game, how acutely Tally has experienced them, he makes for a compelling contributor to a symposium in St Mary’s University Belfast, on Wednesday night on applied sports psychology.

Hosted by Dr Ciaran Kearney – the lead for psychology in the Gaelic Games Sports Science steering group – it will feature contributions from the world of academia in Dr Lee-Ann Sharp and Dr Kate Kirby, who are working with figures such as the Irish Olympic team and Ciara Mageean, as well as contributions from former Irish rugby international Chris Henry and Donegal’s 2012 All-Ireland winning captain, Michael Murphy.

Fellow guest Chris Henry. Tommy Dickson / INPHO Tommy Dickson / INPHO / INPHO

What it seeks to achieve is a greater understanding about sports psychology as a discipline with professionals in the field, and then related in practical terms to the likes of retired greats such as Chris Henry and Michael Murphy.

“In general terms, there can be a misconception about sports-based psychology. This is why the event on Wednesday will be a really good event for people who are serious about their sport,” says Tally.

“I have to be very clear about this – only trust your mind to someone who understands the complexity of brain function, human thought processes and emotions.  

“I have heard of instances where unqualified practitioners ‘opened up’ mental wounds without knowing how to deal with the consequences and not closing them. Leaving athletes a lot worse off than when they started, simply because they did not have the required knowledge and understanding.

“Those athletes have had to attend proper psychologists to close the wound opened by somebody else.”

Ask him about working with the current Kerry players and others, and he immediately identifies a quality.

“The first thing that struck me was the humility. The humility of the Kerry players and management team,” explains Tally.

“They are incredibly humble, modest people. Although they have had a lot of success over the years, the willingness to learn, the willingness to listen and to not think for a moment that they are better than what they are.”

Which makes you wonder. Do the Kerry players ask tougher questions of themselves, than others?

“Without a doubt. Without a doubt.

“They are not afraid, not in any demeaning way, to call each other out, willy-nilly. They are very clear about the expectations and standards they expect of each other.

“So the conversations among themselves; a lot of them are private and a lot of them are facilitated to be private so it doesn’t take a coach or a management figure to intervene in conversations. These players are big enough and mature enough to accept that this is part and parcel of being a high-performance player.”

By that, he means all elite players. Ask him about David Clifford and he will immediately broaden the scope to include the Peter Canavans and great players he has coached.

“It’s a common theme with the highest performers I have worked with over the past 25 years.

“The top players are the same, there’s a thread that runs through all those high performers. They possess vast reserves of mental toughness, competitiveness, desire to maximise their potential, it’s so evident,” he says.

“They consistently perform at the top level. They do not have one good season and be absent the following year. It transpires most when they are faced with major challenges in the most pressurised moments, they consistently deliver. And that’s any sport, not just Gaelic Games.”

When Tally started in the county game with Tyrone, there was no sports psychologist attached to the team. Now it is not so much commonplace, but expected. The evolution has been good for the game.

“If we travel back 25 or 30 years ago, psychology wouldn’t have been spoken about,” Tally points out, adding, “It wasn’t that it wasn’t happening.

“There were lots of motivational practices taking place and lots many methods used to prepare players in different areas.

“Psychology is a domain that has developed in all areas, whether that is for example; educational, clinical or sports psychology.

“What has happened over the last number of years is that teams are addressing of the mental aspect of performance as well as the physical, technical and tactical areas.

“Whereas in the past, the mental aspect was not afforded as much time, and now it’s seen as important. And that’s driven by high performers who have adopted psychology as part of their preparations.

“As a result of that, anyone else that wants to achieve in sport will add it to their ‘kitbag’; having the mental skills and tools to deal with whatever situation they are dealt with. Whether that is on the pitch, inside the training environment, outside the environment, life in general.”

For those that want to go along, the symposium has been moved to the largest hall in the college, but at the time of publishing there are still places available.