IF DIARMUID O\u2019KEEFFE has learned anything from being an intercounty hurler during the rolling lockdowns of the past year, it is an increased admiration for athletes in individual sports.<\/p>\n
The Wexford player will finally get going with his team next Sunday afternoon with their league opener against Laois.<\/p>\n
Over the past twelve months, the 2019 All-Star has got too accustomed for his liking to training on his own instead of in a collective environment.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s only so many 4-5km runs you can do. Last March and April when the first lockdown came, I was running on the roads around Wexford town. I was genuinely broke up. I just couldn\u2019t do it any more. I had to try and find a grass area to go running.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s you and your own thoughts, just pushing yourself the whole time. It\u2019s far from easy. It\u2019s a great skill for people in a single sport like boxing or rowing or running or whatever it may be, that they\u2019re just able to motivate themselves consistently on their own.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the ratio of training to matches as it is, is nearly too much. We were doing enough training on ourselves, (now) just eager to get going and playing\u00a0matches.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wexford had planned to return to training on New Year\u2019s Day, aiming to start with a boxing programme. The layoff ended up being longer than they had could have imagined with the firm focus now placed on bouncing back from a limp showing in 2020.<\/p>\n
A 13-point loss to Galway in their province, a seven-point reversal against Clare in the qualifiers and that was their year done.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was as tame an effort to retain a Leinster title as probably anyone has come out with,\u201d admits O\u2019Keeffe.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just didn\u2019t perform at all. It was flat, they were stale performances. On a personal level you just want to forget your performances, they were so below par. I expect so much more from myself and I know the lads do as well.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe standout thing was we probably anticipated games to be coming back sooner than what they did. So we were trying to keep our fitness levels up during the lockdown and probably pushed a bit too hard at the beginning.<\/p>\n
\n Diarmuid O’Keeffe in action for his club St Anne’s last year.<\/p>\n
Source: Bryan Keane\/INPHO<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a result when games did come back, we were greeted with club championship first. Some of the lads probably reckon they had a better campaign with their clubs than they did in their county campaign, and hit form earlier in the season.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe year had dragged on so much, and for a long period of time you couldn\u2019t really see the light at the end of the tunnel with games coming up. So the immediate thing was you just wanted to get a break from everything, completely remove yourself and just freshen up totally.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavy, he played his cards well in that sense that he only lasted a couple of hours and he said \u2018I\u2019m 100% committed to 2021\u2032. And that gave the players a little bit of\u2026 We don\u2019t have to worry, because in previous years it was \u2018Will Davy\/Won\u2019t Davy come back?\u2019 That was it. We knew where we stood.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
\n Dejected Wexford players after their loss to Clare last year.<\/p>\n
Source: Lorraine O\u2019Sullivan\/INPHO<\/p>\n
Off the pitch, O\u2019Keeffe works as a secondary school teacher, a role that has been challenging in itself this year after teaching remotely before the return to classrooms.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor the first couple of weeks it worked fine, but the more it dragged on, it became very challenging to keep the kids motivated.\u00a0 From my point of view, it provided structure to my day and was still okay that I was doing my training in the evening. It was far from straightforward to be honest, while the kids did well at the beginning, it didn\u2019t take too long where they lost motivation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen a change in the kids since we\u2019ve come back to school. I have found they have become a lot quieter, they have taken longer to come out of themselves. Before Christmas even, I would have thought they were interacting a bit better. It will come back eventually, the more time they spend in school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know in my own club there is a big push on to actually try and make sure that all the kids that were there pre-lockdown come back and participate again. That\u2019s really important, it\u2019s inevitable that people lose interest and they are finding entertainment in other ways, gaming online, whatever it may be.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou will lose numbers in underage setups, that\u2019s inevitable. All you can do is keep plugging away and trying your best to keep the kids going.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Diarmuid O’Keeffe at the 2021 Allianz hurling league launch.<\/p>\n
Source: David Fitzgerald\/SPORTSFILE<\/p>\n