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'As a team you go through so much together, you just wouldn't experience that elsewhere'

Sharon Courtney shares how drinking less has helped her to gain more.

“WITH TRAINING, YOU CAN just forget about your day. You’re going training with 30 girls who are your best friends because you see them so much.”

Like a lot of GAA players, Sharon Courtney’s days are fairly busy – but as the captain of the Monaghan Ladies team and a lecturer in sports nutrition in both Dundalk IT and IT Blanchardstown, Sharon’s days are even more frantic than most.

As Sharon says, she’s lucky that she has “a background in how to look after yourself”. She’s also keenly aware of the fact that sport can provide you with a social outlet like no other.

But being a county captain it comes with its own sacrifices – Sharon knows that drinking too much alcohol isn’t good – for her body or her team.

Being a team-player

“If you’re very focused on a match or a season goal, going out and drinking doesn’t match up”, shares Sharon. The reality of an inter-county training schedule really leaves little time for losing mornings to hangovers.

As Sharon explains, alcohol takes a few days to get out of your system, so you’re “essentially wasting that time at training sessions because you won’t get the most out of them. It can take your body about three days to get back on track properly. ”

For me, you feel sluggish the next day, your concentration levels and reaction time is off. You have an increased change of becoming injured because you don’t react as quickly or you make stupid mistakes.

Football is ‘a huge social outlet’

For Sharon, it’s her teammates and the friends she has on the field that mean more to her than anything about GAA (except maybe winning an All-Ireland final): “When you’re on a team there’s a lot of goal-setting and striving towards that.”

There’s a reason why retired football players always count their teammates as their closest friends, says Sharon: “There might be a lot of losses along the way but it builds character. As a team you go through so much together and you just wouldn’t experience that elsewhere.”

Sharon Courtney dejected Donall Farmer / INPHO Donall Farmer / INPHO / INPHO

Team sports can be particularly gruelling on your body – they push you to limits that Sharon says she would never achieve from training by yourself:

You push yourself and your limits a lot more on a team. If you’re by yourself and you’re out of breath on a run you’ll stop but on the pitch you’ll still go even if you think you’re exhausted.

It’s this that three-time All Star Award winner loves the most about playing – being surrounded by teammates, which she says is a “huge social outlet”:

We’re all a bit stressed from work so being able to go out training and release that means you don’t dwell as much on it. The biggest thing is the social side – being able to talk to people on your wavelength.

Keeping your eye on the ball

And with leading an inter-county team comes a certain level of responsibility – one of which is to go easy on alcohol, which Sharon says “becomes part and parcel of it”.

Sharon Courtney with Shauna Kelly Tommy Dickson / INPHO Tommy Dickson / INPHO / INPHO

Although being surrounded by teammates at training never fails to cheer Sharon up, alcohol tends to have the opposite effect for her:

You feel sorry for yourself the whole next day. You end up eating rubbish, you exclude yourself and don’t want to see anybody.

Sharon chooses to steer clear of the alcohol during championship season is that it can actually make things dangerous for an athlete:

Carla Rowe and Niamh McEvoy with Sharon Courtney and Grain McNally Morgan Treacy / INPHO Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO

Over the years, Sharon has also seen girls lose out on training from injuries sustained on nights out – a twisted knee that led to six weeks out, a broken arm before the college final matches. “I’ve seen different girls who had huge potential to make it on the county scene but over time they don’t get fit or suffer from injuries.”

Doesn’t she miss alcohol sometimes?

If there’s a big night out, Sharon says she’ll drive in and not drink. None of her friends mind, or else she meets her friends outside football for breakfast or to go to the cinema.

So, how can we all stay as on-the-ball as the Monaghan captain?

The team really gives me my social outlet. In Ireland a lot of social aspects revolve around alcohol but there are still so many things you can do that don’t involve drinking.

A secret that will work even if you’re not remotely athletic? “Pencil something in on a Friday evening or a Sunday morning which means that you can’t be hungover – it’ll be an incentive to drink a bit less and get to bed a bit earlier.”

Sharon is an ambassador for HSE’s AskAboutAlcohol.ie and GAA Health and Wellbeing Theme Day in Croke Park on 11 August. The partnership aims to raise awareness of the impact of alcohol on players and fans health and wellbeing – on and off the pitch. At AskAboutAlcohol.ie you’ll find trusted advice, a drinks calculator and plenty of other helpful resources.

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    Mute Mark
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    Mar 13th 2020, 5:38 PM

    Are playdates ok ? NO!

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    Mute Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin
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    Mar 13th 2020, 6:47 PM

    @Mark: Playdates were never ok. Heard a top child and family psychologist on the radio a few weeks ago speaking about how they’re needless and normally only an excuse for parents to get together to gossip about other parents! Children get plenty social interaction at creche, preschool, school or even at home with their families!!

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    Mute Angel Drake
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    Mar 13th 2020, 7:39 PM

    @Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: how old are your children?? Because if u had children in junior infants and third class ud know they always ask for play dates, top psychologist? Please name? Because play dates I feel builds there self esteem and gives them cultural or social differental experiences.

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    Mute Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin
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    Mar 13th 2020, 9:05 PM

    @Angel Drake: I’m patently aware of the needs of school-aged children and of the myriad of research that overwhelmingly indicates that play dates are not necessary for social development. Informal play with siblings etc. and interaction in school-based settings is far more valuable than the kind of contrived and overly structured situations that parents conjure up.

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    Mute Kevin Bury
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    Mar 13th 2020, 11:43 PM

    @Sorcha Ní Shúilleabháin: seriously, go pet ur cat

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    Mute Shakka1244
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    Mar 13th 2020, 5:50 PM

    Kids can catch it and kids can spread it.
    Please everyone, just for a few weeks, assume you have the virus and act like you don’t want to spread it.
    We all need to work together here !

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    Mute Shakka1244
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    Mar 13th 2020, 6:27 PM

    @David Jordan: Please ignore this. It’s pure lies.
    .
    @journal, please remove this dangerous misinformation. I’ve seen this poster spout this rubbish on loads of threads.

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    Mute Shakka1244
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    Mar 13th 2020, 7:05 PM

    @Shakka1244: thank you @journal
    Fair pkay

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    Mute Quentin Moriarty
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    Mar 13th 2020, 7:25 PM

    @Shakka1244: ????????

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    Mute Shakka1244
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    Mar 13th 2020, 9:07 PM

    @Quentin Moriarty: someone called David Jordan keeps posting the same stuff saying kids can’t catch it or spread it. Completely false. I asked for his post to be removed.

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    Mute Dino
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    Mar 13th 2020, 10:04 PM

    @Shakka1244: thank god, if it wasn’t for people like you I don’t know what we would do

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    Mute Bleurgh
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    Mar 13th 2020, 5:59 PM

    Look people it’s 2 weeks, with your children….relax! It’s good for kids to be bored. I have friends who grew up in rural Ireland in the 80s, who wouldn’t see anyone outside their family for 2 or 3 weeks over the summer.
    I have muted my kids classes WhatsApp groups, I am so annoyed at the parents talking with such dread of being at home with their own children in their own house. I’d rather my kids at home than visiting them in icu. Myself and himself are trying to do working from
    Home in shifts.
    Also I hate play dates with a passion, I wish for the days that kids knocked on the door to play!
    Deal with it, it’s a few weeks!

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    Mute Paddy Dunne
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    Mar 13th 2020, 6:45 PM

    @Bleurgh: it’s not going to be 2 weeks it’s going to be at least a month 2 weeks is preliminary 4 days to Easter hols there will be no school till after Easter

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    Mute Tommy Roche
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    Mar 13th 2020, 6:50 PM

    @Bleurgh: There is absolutely no way this is just a 2 week closure. The governments plan is to try delay the peak of infection until late spring/early summer when the usual winter type ailments all but die out, thus leaving the health services under a little less pressure and better able to focus on this particular virus. Even the governments experts are saying our peak is at least weeks away, if not months, so how would it make any sense to reopen schools when the situation is going to be worse on the 29th March than it is now ? Ive no doubt the closure will be extended until after the easter break, and if at that point the number of infections are still rising then anything is possible. Wouldn’t be one bit surprised if the closures run up to the summer holidays and schools dont reopen until next Sept.

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    Mute Jacqueline McCabe
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    Mar 13th 2020, 5:47 PM

    No

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    Mute Arya
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    Mar 13th 2020, 5:42 PM

    How are the children learning at home? Is there tools online from the schools or department of education?

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    Mute Johnny BeGoode
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    Mar 13th 2020, 5:44 PM

    @Arya: The educational website twinkl is offering free membership to all parents this month, this is a fantastic resource. Go to www.twinkl.ie/offer and enter the code IRLTWINKLHELPS

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    Mute Record Sunshine
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    Mar 13th 2020, 5:45 PM

    @Arya: mine are learning all about Zelda at the moment. They’re in primary school and a few weeks of doing f all won’t harm their career prospects.

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    Mute Bríd
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    Mar 13th 2020, 5:45 PM

    @Arya: Yes, there’s lots of online classroom resources. Many schools are using Google Classroom and Edmodo as well as sending links home, textbooks and assigning research projects.

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    Mute Dave Harris
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    Mar 13th 2020, 5:47 PM

    @Arya: my junior infant will have daily lessons on seesaw. Used it today and its great

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    Mute Sarah Green
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    Mar 13th 2020, 6:00 PM

    @Arya: My son’s school is doing work with the pupils via their iPads.

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    Mute Bleurgh
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    Mar 13th 2020, 6:00 PM

    @Arya: teachers in primary have sent home packs for kids to do. At second level many have platforms where teachers have uploaded work

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    Mute Towger
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    Mar 13th 2020, 6:30 PM

    @Arya: My secondary children had a full day of school online today, following their normal timetable. The school is using MS Teams. By all accounts it went better than expected.

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    Mute Adam Conroy
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    Mar 13th 2020, 7:20 PM

    @Arya: they’re using online platforms. In fairness though, most education happens at home. A month out of school won’t do any harm.

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    Mute Mark Porter
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    Mar 13th 2020, 7:50 PM

    @Arya: our secondary school has online access to subjects and work.

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    Mute Kevin Bury
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    Mar 13th 2020, 11:47 PM

    @Record Sunshine: 78 thumbs up…. villages and their idiots

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    Mute Kevin Thompson
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    Mar 14th 2020, 7:55 AM

    Regardless whether it is 2 weeks or 2 months to mind your own children, it would be a great opportunity to teach them not to be selfish a**holes in hoarding as their adult counterparts and learn how to look after the more vulnerable in society

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    Mute Mark Porter
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    Mar 13th 2020, 7:48 PM

    2 weeks is the isolation period.

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