'I try to lead in how I train and how I play'
Paul Fitzpatrick catches up with Cavan full-back Padraig Faulkner.
Padraig Faulkner has been a relevation. ‘He’s got the Faulkner genes, he only sees the ball,’ was how Terry Hyland described the young Kingscourt man after the win over Meath but he’s more than just a physically dominant player – while he’s still a rookie, his reading of the game and speed have been hugely impressive.”
- The Anglo-Celt, March 3, 2016
He might not have seen them in the flesh, his father Pat and uncle Michael, winning their 14 Senior Championship medals with Kingscourt or lining out with Cavan, but Padraig Faulkner knows his history. He grew up surrounded by the game, the white star and the royal blue.
Now, he’s living it too, a regular starter for club and county.
“I actually was never lucky enough to see them playing but going by past videos and newspaper clippings and people talking… Yeah, it was always an ambition [to follow in their footsteps]. I would have grown up with my cousin Brian Farrell playing for Meath and it was always a goal for me, yeah.
“I was always immersed in it but the nice thing about it was, it was never forced on me, I was never pushed into it. I used to play soccer and do athletics and Dad never really wanted to push football on to me. He knew it wasn’t right for a young lad, he let people walk their own paths as such in their own sporting career.”
Faulkner has done that and now is as good a time as any to reflect, given that, for the first time for the guts of a decade, he is not caught up in preparing for any football match of significance as GAA activities, at all levels, have been suspended.
The decree from Croke Park arrived on a Thursday evening, not long after schools closed. It was the end of a dramatic few hours for footballers and schoolteachers and, in the case of Faulkner and several of his teammates, both.
“It was such a shock to the system. I was teaching in school and within an hour there were a lot of changes. First of all school ended and that was it, shut now, and then within the hour all GAA was off. I just looked it up online and saw it.”
Before the severity of the situation became apparent, the Cavan squad had been taking precuations, opting to only use the gyms in groups of a maximum of three players at a time but that soon went by the wayside.
“Now can’t even do that because it’s shared equipment and you can get infected that way. It’s complete shut-off from all camp now. We can’t be in any contact with each other. It’s individual training only.
“André [Quinn, strength and conditioning coach], has given us running programmes that we can get done on our own and we’re trusting everyone to put their own shift in and it will show when we get back.”
The situation has been exacerbated by uncertainty; nobody knows how long the current crisis will last.
“Who knows when school will start back? It could be the start of June, it could be next September, you just don’t know what way it’s going to pan out.
“As for football, no idea. No idea. It could go any way, the league could be scrapped, it could be a straight final based on where teams are now. Who knows? Everybody is in the same boat and no-one is any the wiser as to what’s going to happen.
“Even championship-wise, you don’t know what format they are going to run it on this year, it could even be a knock-out. I can’t see them having the Super 8s because it will just run on too far, that’s my own opinion.
“You have to go off on your own and nearly do your own thing. It’s very hard in a team sport to go straight back to being an individual.”
As a county player, Faulkner is used to having a strict schedule. Now, his time is his own barring some obligatory domestic chores (“Workwise round here, it’s whatever Mammy says goes!”). Being free as a bird sounds great but it takes some getting used to, too.
Since winning an Ulster minor medal in 2011, Padraig has grown accustomed to the rhythms of the never-ending football season. Club, county, club and before you know it, county time again.
In that period, he got off the carousel once to spend a summer in the States, ironically a destination which probably cost him a few appearances as a starry-eyed kid trying to break into development squads.
“I played a small bit of them. Every year we went to America so I always missed the trials. I was on development squads a wee bit at U14, a wee bit at U16 and then minors was the first time I really played properly.
“Then I came into a great set-up with the U21s. Peter Reilly and Joe McCarthy, they were brilliant, just brilliant.”
It was with the 2014 U21s, one of the best underage sides the county has ever assembled, that Faulkner marked himself out as a player with a bright future. He was exposed to a high-class set-up and his game improved rapidly.
“With the minors, you had it to an extent but U21s was the first experience of real professionalism because you had to make different sacrifices. You were in college and social life is one of the main aspects of college and you had to sacrifice your social outings and make the commitment to go the whole way home for training so there was a huge step-up from minor.
“As a minor, you were used to studying for the Leaving and parents would drop you to training in Cavan, everyone was living at home. U21 is a completely different scenario. I think U21 prepares you for senior level. Boys know what to expect going in.
“It was quite easy going in to the seniors for me because I wasn’t going in on my own. You had Gerry Smith, Liam Buchanan, Enda Flanagan, Conor Madden, Ciaran Brady, all boys my age group who were going in… we all kind of knew each other so it wasn’t too bad going in at the start.
“It’s obviously daunting going into a new team, a new training scenario, new aspects to it. It was a completely different thing but you knew what to expect after being with the U21s.”
In 2016, Faulkner nailed down his place in Terry Hyland’s senior team. Promotion to Division 1 and a league final appearance against Tyrone were secured before a bright start to the championship petered out. The intervening years have seen peaks and troughs but Faulkner believes that Cavan have been trending upwards all along.
“I personally think we have been getting better every year. There’s always small improvements, whether it’s players’ physicality or other areas.
“Eoin Maguire came in and that was the first set-up I’ve had where it was gym sessions and strength and conditioning and then Tom Cribbin and then André. We’ve just been building for the last four years.
“Results-wise, Ulster is such a competitive province that it’s very hard to get results, depending on your draw. Generally when we have been knocked out it’s been by a very good team.”
Back in his rookie season, it was all new and novel. Faulkner was a new man on the team and suppporters were willing to cut him some slack. As time went on, demands and expectation grew and he had to meet it. He did and is now viewed as one of the established members of the county squad and a leading club player, picking up a Breffni All-Star in 2019.
“I don’t think [his role in the Cavan team] is massively different. I myself try to lead moreso in how I train and how I play. Ray Galligan would pride himself on how he talks and presents. There are different ways to lead. I find this year, we have become very player-led in our training.
“Players are taking ownership and really driving training on. It’s not just one or two lads who could stop training and say ‘this isn’t good enough’, everyone kind of knows themselves and a problem is usually fixed by the players themselves.”
The core group of Cavan mainstays was decimated last winter with the defections of the likes of Killian Clarke, Conor Moynagh and Dara McVeety, key voices in the dressing-room with whom Faulkner came up through the ranks.
Faulkner doesn’t try to pretend he wasn’t disappointed when they opted out but he doesn’t hold it against them. And the way things are panning out, he grins, they may miss very little football anyway.
“Look, it’s deflating. You get to an Ulster final and you think ‘we’re on the up again next year’ but that’s it… I have no grudges about boys heading away or taking time out. It’s tough, a really, really tough commitment.
“I went to America myself for a summer and enjoyed every bit of it and had no regrets. It’s a massive commitment at times, you’re training so much and putting a lot on the line. It was tough to see those boys go but you just have to get on with it, other lads can step up then.
“Some lads have stepped up big time in their playing and in their leadership too.”
The full-back couldn’t see himself stepping back from the grind. Not yet, anyway. He adores the game, loves the challenge, enjoys emptying himself on the training field and the buzz it brings.
“I come 40 or 50 minutes early to training. The craic with the lads is one of my favourite parts, the messing and the slagging. You’d probably do about 20 minutes of prepping before training and then it’s tough training.
“I don’t know what word I’d use, the sensation you get out of a tough training session… It’s just a sport I love to play. I don’t think I’d be doing it if I didn’t really love it or enjoy it.
“If I opted out myself, I know I’d be straight down and probably training as much with Kingscourt as I do with Cavan. It’s just the love of football. I don’t think I’d be able to stop.”
In the absence of those who did choose to temporarily do so, Cavan have defied expectations. Three successive wins saw them earn the mantle of promotion favourites before an unexpected defeat to Clare brought them crashing back down to earth. They were chomping at the bit to get back out there and make amends for that one when the season came to a standstill. If he has a regret, that is it.
“Is it frustrating? Completely. You’re gearing yourself up for Kildare after a defeat to Clare. We really wanted to bounce back, it’s very deflating to see that you won’t be able to get a chance to get another rap at it. I know we lost our first game and had to bounce back and we did so it’s quite annoying that the league might be scrapped. We just don’t know. No-one does.
“It’s complete uncertainty, businesses, everything. It’s crazy. Boys are told to keep training ourselves, there’s a running programme sent out. You do you, essentially. Cavan county board can’t be seen doing anything behind closed doors or anything. The Whatsapp? Of course it’s down.
“Tricia, our nutritionist, is sending us different meals and things so it’s up to lads to keep themselves in shape nutrition-wise or physicality wise.”
These are the days that separate those who say they want it with those who really do, he believes. With no match or even training session to prepare for, focus could wane but he meets that head on.
“It is hard to keep motivated but that’s where the commitment comes in, the will or the want to win. There’s that cheesy saying, ‘if it’s meant to be it’s up to me’. You go and do whatever you think will benefit you the best.
“Again, we never saw this coming so nothing is guaranteed. Look at Niall Murray. Niall Murray thought he was going to be playing football for Cavan this year and now he’s going to be out for the majority of it. You take everything one year at a time, you can’t predict what’s going to happen.
“For all you know, your next game of football could be your last. You have to take it one year at a time.”
In life and in sport, he keeps driving on.