Lads are nearly detesting playing inter-county football. It might be a strong word but you’re playing and training the whole time, you’re taking a lot of time out of your own life. It’s coming to a point where you’re saying, ‘Do I really want to do it?’ It’s hard for the lower teams who play every single year and are beaten in the championship. They’ve 30-35 lads doing nearly the exact same training as the other teams and getting very little out of it. Then you’re training with very few games — eight in the League, maybe two in the championship and you’re training for six, seven months of the year, minimum.
The Seneschalstown man claimed that the ratio of training to games was "scandalous" and advocated the idea of playing many more championship games, insisting that the championship is "where it's at".
Sheridan went back on the mentality of inter county squads when he began training and commented on the growth in opportunities for young players today:
When I started off, no lad would ever leave the Meath squad. It was unheard of. If you bought in, the only reason you left was if you were dropped. These days, lads have different commitments. That’s just the way life has gone. The world is a lot smaller, lads travel for college, for work. You can’t begrudge a lad for going and doing these things because they have to look at their life experiences and life outside of football.
Sheridan explained the reasons behind stepping away from the county scene in 2007, at the age of 23:
I wasn’t in good form regarding my own footballing side of things. To be honest, I just dreaded going to training. I didn’t want to be there, I had no drive to be there. It was one of the worst runs of form that I’d had.
I said ‘Look, I’m not going to drag myself through this just to play football. I have to think of myself and enjoyment of my own life.
You can listen to Sheridan's interview with LMFM below.
H/T: The 42
