PROFILE
DANIEL CAREY
REPORTER
IN almost every game of Gaelic football, from junior B to the All-Ireland championship, midfield is the platform for victory. So says David Brady, and after more than a decade in the Mayo engine-room, he’s more qualified than most to make that assessment.
With question marks looming over the Galway midfield, Mayo supporters are hoping to win the lion’s share of possession in this crucial sector, and that’s where Ronan McGarrity and Tom Parsons come in. Captain McGarrity is, by now, a well-known figure. But what of his midfield partner? David Brady has been very impressed with Parsons, who won the man of the match award in the Connacht semi-final.
“I’d probably be still playing if I didn’t see him coming up,” Brady admitted at last week’s TV3-organised gathering of local GAA officials and media in the McWilliam Park Hotel, Claremorris. “He’s a great find, and there’s no way I was going to chase him for the next 12 months in A versus B games, (with) me on the B team.”
But Brady cautioned against viewing Parsons as ‘the great white hope of Mayo football’, saying that it could be some time before the young man finds his feet among the big boys.
“It takes three or four years to cut your teeth in senior football. Ronan McGarrity is an established player now, but … 2004 was his first All-Ireland campaign,” said the TV3 analyst.
Ciaran McBrien has known Tom Parsons since his first footballing experience with the Charlestown club at the age of eight, and says he ‘showed a keen interest’ from day one. Tall for his age, he was part of a Sarsfields team that won an East Mayo U-16 title in 2004, beating Moy Davitts in the divisional final. Colm Maye, Shane Moran, and Joe McBrien were all members of that side, and have since graduated to the senior ranks. They lost the county semi-final in a replay (after extra-time) to eventual winners Claremorris, but Parsons showed enough to earn a call-up into the Mayo minor panel the following year.
Unfortunately, the 17-year-old broke a bone in his leg in the 2005 Connacht final against Galway, and so wasn’t on the field for Mayo’s subsequent All-Ireland final defeat to Down. He was fit in 2006, though Mayo were stopped in their tracks by eventual All-Ireland champions Roscommon in the provincial decider. Stephen Rochford, who was a Mayo minor selector during Parsons’ time involved, recalls that the midfielder had ‘played really well’ in the 2005 Connacht semi-final win over Roscommon, and he isn’t surprised to see him feature under John O’Mahony.
“The qualities you’re seeing in him now at county level for the seniors were definitely evident at minor,” says Rochford. “He has a great spring, a great catch, and a huge engine – he and Pierce Hanley used to be the two guys out the front for all the runs. At minor level, he was always one to show great leadership, and used to take it very personally if his performance was below the benchmark he would have set previously.”
Parsons attended St Attracta’s NS and St Joseph’s Secondary School in Charlestown, where he won a a Connacht Colleges D title. He had two successful years with Mayo U-21s, winning Connacht crowns this year and last. He also played a key role as Charlestown reached the 2007 county senior final. A second year civil engineering student at Sligo IT, he missed the pre-championship training camp in Portugal due to exam commitments, but according to McBrien, Parsons has always been a good trainer.
“He has a very, very good attitude. He’s the type of fella who will take things on board if you say something to him. He’s poetry in motion when you see him going for a kickout or a high ball, because he has great judgement. And he’s a very good ball-carrier, because he covers a power of ground.”
But McBrien has noticed that Parsons has matured a lot as a footballer in the last year, and has worked on other aspects of his game. Though he’s likely to pop up with a score in most games, his defensive skills have improved, as has his distribution. Crossmolina man Rochford, who has played against Parsons a number of times at club level, has noticed that he’s also physically stronger now.
“He’s really, really bulked up in the last year or two. He’s got very, very strong, and you can see that particularly in his club football. He and ‘Ginger’ Tiernan are looking to take over from McGarrity and Brady as the dominant club midfield pairing in the county.”
Early days then, but he’s made quite an impact already. Watch this space.
