ARE THE YOUNG really fearless?
That’s the line in football, anyway.
They play with a freedom that seasoned professionals can no longer enjoy.
Ryan O’Kane challenges that misconception and makes it seem ridiculous.
He turns 21 next month and is in his third proper season with hometown club Dundalk.
An appearance in the FAI Cup against Louth rivals Drogheda United tonight would make it his 100th in senior football.
So this is when he should begin to feel the unrelenting grind of a ruthless industry, paralysed by its pitfalls and embracing the weariness of the scolded winger?
Not so.
Instead, it’s experience and maturity that is allowing him to properly begin to fulfil his potential by breaking free of the self-sabotage of youth.
For the last year he has been seeing a sports psychologist outside of the club. No longer does he ignore friends and family or allow doubt to fester with only his own insecurities for company.
“We have battles to win on the pitch every week but the toughest battles are in our head,” he says.
“Not letting stuff defeat you. When something doesn’t go right on the pitch it’s about having the mentality to go again and again, and not give up.
“It’s taxing on the mind. It’s demanding but part of it is to keep the enjoyment of playing football. I play because I love it and I never want to have the feeling of going in every day and hating it.”
A brilliant strike by Ryan O'Kane to make it 2-0 to Dundalk!
— League of Ireland (@LeagueofIreland) July 12, 2024
DUN 2-0 DRO#LOITV | #DUNDRO pic.twitter.com/mPrEPgxKlT
There have been times over the course of the last three years when that has been put to the test – doubting how far he can go in the game and fearing the worst.
“It’s a release off your shoulders when you go and talk about it,” O’Kane says.
“Before this season I would maybe shut those around me out if things weren’t going how I wanted them to. My girlfriend, my family, my friends. Now I am more open and it is better for me.
“Instead of keeping things to yourself and letting thoughts build and build in your head, I will let them out because they can get nasty.”
O’Kane explains the nature of his self-doubt.
“I might have made one mistake in a game and that is all I would think about, but not about how I can learn from it and get better from it.
“I’d think that mistake was the reason we lost. I might even have had a good game but I’d get in my head and say it was a bad game and I was at fault. I was to blame. Your own head can be a powerful thing, the negative thoughts that can be there. It starts getting nastier and nastier but only if you let it.
“It’s good to get rid of those emotions and tell people.”
O’Kane comes from a football family. His father played for Newry City and his grandfather, Tony O’Kane, was the Dundalk chairman at a time when the club’s existence was under threat.
The takeover of 2013 led to a stunning revival under manager Stephen Kenny.
Five league titles would follow in six seasons between 2014-19.
There was the historic Europa League group stage campaign in the middle of that period.
O’Kane was inspired by men who are now teammates – Andy Boyle, John Mountney, Robbie Benson and Daryl Horgan – but his own ambition meant
At nine he made the decision to join Home Farm in Dublin and three train nights a week.
Friday sessions meant attendance at Oriel Park was a rare event.
“But I knew that’s what I wanted, to test myself and see what I could do.”
By 15 he made his senior debut in the Irish League with Warrenpoint and at 17 Dundalk offered him a three-year contract at Oriel Park.
He was involved in Ireland training camps but never capped.
There have been eye-catching moments, and goals like the one against Drogheda in the league last week.
“I ran straight to my friends after that goal,” he says. “After the game I went to meet some of them in a local pub – I wasn’t drinking – and it’s a hard feeling to describe having people support you so much and sing songs about you.”
What he wants now is to keep giving them reason to cheer.
“It’s about getting that consistency in my game, not just coming on the radar for five or six games and then gone for another five or six games,” O’Kane says.
“Your career is a marathon not a sprint. I’m understanding how to enjoy it and working to find that consistency to make a big career out of it.”
