Anyone for walking football?

UP FOR A GAME Pictured at a recent Walking Football night in Ballinrobe were, back, from left: Diarmuid D’Arcy, Mick Fenton and Mattie Hynes. Front, from left: Mark Smith, Declan Commons, Noel Feehan, David Hynes and Harry Smith.

Ballinrobe is the venue for a Mayo Sports Partnership initiative

Feature
Oisín McGovern

SPORT is fundamentally about bringing people together.
A place where rivalry shuns hatred, where individuals form brotherhoods and sisterhoods, where identity is celebrated but never weaponised.
On a frigid Wednesday night in Ballinrobe — far from the searing Arabian heat and oil-soaked opulence of the recent controversial World Cup — football was bringing people together for the right reasons.
It’s 8pm and the car is reading 3.5 degrees, the sort of temperature that’d give you stiff knees if you hadn’t got them already (more on that later).
A group of giddy youngsters from Ballinrobe Town FC have just finished up on the Astro-turf pitch in the place they call ‘The Green’.
Once they are done, a group of eight men – some of them old enough to be their grandfathers – arrive for their weekly game of walking football.
The rules of walking football are simple; no high balls, no tackling, no offsides and strictly no running.
The game has taken off across the pond, with several fully-functioning leagues already on the go.
It has gained popularity in Dublin but has yet to take a hold in the West of Ireland.
“You’ll meet people here tonight who wouldn’t be taking part in any sport, and perhaps have very little social interaction with other men and other people,” says Mark Smith, who runs the Wednesday night sessions as part of Mayo Sport’s Partnership’s ‘Men On The Move’ programme.
“It’s as much good for the mind and good exercise, but it’s also the social, the camaraderie, the craic,” Mark adds.
“It’s getting out, meeting the people, doing a bit of physical walking soccer every now and again,” Noel Feehan, one of the participants, tells The Mayo News before the real action begins.
Layered up to the last, this scribe decides to sample what walking football actually is like before sitting down to the laptop.
At first, stopping oneself from running and sprinting is the biggest challenge, but after a while you get used to taking longer, quicker strides.
With no room for mazy dribbles, the incentive is to let the ball do the work.
After about fifteen minutes, the woolly hat is discarded and the jacket jettisoned (clearly, this turned out to be a bigger workout then expected!).
The five minute-break arrives in the blink of eye, and this is where The Mayo News decides to stand back and observe proceedings.
The craic and camaraderie are palpable in every shout, pass, slagging match and cheer that echoes across the River Robe.
Phrases like ‘high press’ and ‘tika-taka’ are uttered on more than one occasion.
While these were present to varying degrees, the promise of ‘a big bust-up at the end’ never materialised.
When all is said and done, the faces of all eight participants are etched with smiles of satisfaction.
What other place could men of their age enjoy a game of soccer in this manner?
Not many, is the answer.
For sure, there is the Mayo Football League’s well-ran and well-subscribed Masters grade.
However, taking on the likes of Joe Lawless and JP O’Gorman on a wet Wednesday night certainly isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, particularly if the knees are long gone past the sell-by date.
That is why these troopers are so keen on this slower, more inclusive version of the game.
“You can play it at your own pace,” surmises 61-year-old Burnley native Mick Fenton.
“We’re getting to the stage where we can’t do the running anymore, but we just want to keep active and keep doing something,” adds David Hynes.
And they would only love more men – and women – to join them of a Wednesday night.
“When you say ‘walking soccer’ to them, they say ‘What the hell is that all about?’,” says Mattie Hynes (71), an Over-40 All-Ireland winner with Mayo who played Gaelic football until the age of 52.
“The first thing they think of is Father Ted,” remarks David, a sentiment echoed his team-mates.
Indeed, the biggest myth they are trying to dispel is that this is some mock-up of the ‘Annual All Priests 5-A-Side Over 75s Indoor Football Challenge Match’.
“I think the hardest thing about it is getting people to come the first night. If you get them the first night, they’ll realise that this is actually a bit of fun,” says Diarmuid D’Arcy, setting the Father Ted jokes aside.
"I think when you get to our age, you’ll have a lot of guys wondering, ‘Am I going to get hurt?’ Are the knees going to be okay?’ Then they realise, it’s a bit of fun and there’s very little contact – usually!” he adds with a smile.
The craic is now finished for the evening.
Mattie, Diarmuid and David then hop into the one car and hit for home with the words of their friend Noel Feehan still lingering.
“Same time next Wednesday.”