In an era in which top-notch forwards are almost as rare as sightings of the corncrake, former Cootehill Celtic marksman Brian Sherlock reflects on his career with club and county. Words: Kevin Carney. Brian Sherlock struggles to recall the finer details of his football career but the memories that he does manage to unlock tell an intricate tale of triumphs, travails and tortuous trips to Croke Park. Well not quite. In fact, the former Cootehill and Cavan attacker is a mine of information on everything bar the finer points of his long and eventful career. It seems Brian lived for the moment and lives for the present. Sensible chap. The pity is that arguably his most memorable hour wasn't captured on film. Snatches of him playing in the 1959 All-Ireland minor final would surely make for great viewing out Errigal way and further afield. Brian's three sons, Liam, Brian and Damien all currently play with Cootehill Celtic's premier team. In times past Brian's other sons Patrick and the late Thomas also distinguished themselves in the green and white hoops. All three inherited certain aspects of their father's skill but those who saw Sherlock senior in his prime reckon that the three gasúns have a bit to go before they can lace their auld fella's boots. Thoughts of his playing days have been clouded somewhat by the passage of time. Yet he can recall having a stinker in the aforementioned All-Ireland final. He admits to having replayed that match over and over again in his mind. Needless to say he's still kicking himself about his nightmare in Croker: "I've played that game again several times over but I don't get any better. I can't make up my mind whether or not that game was one of the highlights or lowlights of my time playing football. I know that I didn't do myself justice on the day though. "I don't think I could have played any worse if I had tried to play badly. I just never got going and it was all over before I could get into my stride," Brian laments. Hence, the tortuous trip to Croke Park. Not that he's one to lament. Lives for the present remember. Trying to remember the identities of those he faced with Cootehill and Cavan tests him no end. Fast forwarding the tape to modern times appears to give him some relief but the fact that he is a player from a bygone era when people overdosed on Gaelic football means that his most interesting football times as a player stretch back over three decades, namely, the fifties, sixties and seventies. Trawling through the rusty archives of his cerebellum, Brian lays the blame for Cavan's defeat in the 1959 All-Ireland minor final at the feet of Dublin's star player, 'Blackie' Cohen. "He was a great player; probably the best I had seen at underage level and he done the damage against us that day. We just couldn't handle him." For the two years preceding the '59 decider, Brian served his apprenticeship at intercounty level. He was a substitute on the Cavan minor team which lost out to Donegal in the Ulster championship in 1957 and the following year to togged out for the team that lost to a Sean O'Neill-inspired Down side. Travails galore. There was much more luck for young Sherlock at that time on the club front. Cootehill Celtic won the county under 16 title in 1957 and the minor championships of 1958 and '59. In truth though, Cootehill was a shoe-in for those titles, given the array of talent the club had at hand. In this respect, Brian was joined on the teams by players who would later join him on the Cavan squad for the duel with Dublin in the '59 decider. Fellas like Kevin Blessing and Declan McCluskey from his home town and John Boyle and John McNally from next door in Drumgoon were on board then and helped Cootehill lord it over a succession of underage opponents. Cootehill were a class apart at underage level during Sherlock's time. It wasn't down to any innovative coaching though. "There was no such thing as coaching then. You just played and played and maybe ran around the pitch a few times. Most footballers who made it onto the county team back then were instinctive footballers, natural footballers. If you improved as a footballer it was because of the practice you did, not because of any coaching." Sometimes the odd vivid memory comes racing into play for Brian. Like the time himself and his team-mates jigged about nervously as they prepared to take the field for the 1958 Ulster minor showdown with the Mourne County. He says he can still remember then county board chairman T.P. O'Reilly meandering his way around the dressing-room, showing an old Ulster medal to each and every player as he tried manfully to motivate the young Breffni Blues. There were many characters associated with the various county teams, Brian tells us and one of them was Mick Higgins - the former star player who was in charge of the Cavan senior team in 1964 when the county won the Ulster SFC title. Brian didn't get a run in the '64 decider. He was ill before the game and had a bird's eye view form the dug-out of Peter Pritchard's two goal blast which clinched victory in the final. Pritchard had been brought on as a sub. The Cootehill ace sort of expected that he would have been sprung from the bench too but it wasn't to be. "Winning a final is great and to be part of the panel was great but it's not the same when you don't get a game. Funnily enough, I never got a medal for that win in '64." A big fish in a wee pond (Cootehill), the then 23 year old Sherlock fell out of love with the county scene, big-time. While the rest of the squad trained at Kilnacrott in the run-up to Cavan's semi-final tilt with Kerry, the Cootehill marksman walked away from the squad, feeling like he'd been hard done by. Not being listed in the Anglo-Celt as one of the subs for the Kerry game upset him a lot. "I was young and a bit too rash in deciding to quit the county. I regret that I didn't hang in there and give the county scene my best shot. Sometimes though I wonder would I make the same decision again - I don't honestly know." Brian Sherlock may have fallen out of love with Cavan but he never fell out of love with the game, per se. After all, how could someone who was reared on a diet of football and more football suddenly in his early twenties find the Gaelic game so unpalatable. Matters football were part of the fixtures and fittings in the Sherlock household in Church Street, Cootehill when Brian was growing up. His father Barney was a big influence and was a fanatic about the game right up until his death while watching a match at Hugh O'Reilly Park, Cootehill's pristine home. As a teenager, he was inspired by the wondrous play of Cootehill and Cavan stars like Gerry Keyes, Paddy Coyle, James McEnroe and Brian Gallagher. Kicking the ball back to them at training sessions in the old meadow just off the Cavan road during the halycon days of 1952 etc saw the youngster in his element. He wasn't sort of inspiration. In later life he would find himself not short of medals either, winning two intermediate league medals and one intermediate championship medal. Down the line he got to admire players from further afield; men like Andy McCabe (Crosserlough) Paddy Maguire of Redhills, Gabriel Kelly of Cavan Gaels, Hughie McInerney of Redhills and Ballyhaise's Enda McGowan. Mullahoran's Paddy Smith was a tough opponent too, he adds. By the time 1960 came around, Brian was old enough and good enough himself to play a key role in shaping Cootehill's junior championship title success. Again, he remembers very little about the campaign or the final itself. "I don't think we had the best team in the world but there was a great spirit in the camp and we prepared well for the championship that year," he says. Thereafter a lot of promising talent emerged within the ranks and a senior championship title, or two, beckoned. A false dawn beckoned too sadly. After losing out in the 1963 senior championship semi-final, Cootehill came roaring back, threatening to blow the opposition away the following year. Alas, Bailieboro shocked the Celts in the '64 decider. "That was one hell of a shock for us. We had six or seven county men on our team that year. Looking back on it though, I thought there was something not right about our preparation for the final. I had a bad feeling about the game." Two senior league titles were garnered in the early seventies by an ageing Cootehill crew. The club hasn't reached such heights since despite the fact that our man Sherlock spent several seasons managing the best of talent that emerged in the club during the late seventies and early eighties. So how does the footballers in and around Cootehill compare with his contemporaries? "Years ago you literally lived for football. There was really nothing else to do. But players minded themselves a lot better then, before and after matches and they had a greater pride in the jersey. Maybe the man-management isn't as good as it should be. "Fellas nowadays can take it or leave it when it comes to playing football. I don't think too many of them at club level really mind whether they win, lose or draw. They'll still go for their few drinks after the match anyway." Brian says he is proud to see his three sons play but admits that not much more would entice him to watch a football match nowadays, especially if the weather was in anyway contrary. "I'd love to see the club win the intermediate championship. Cootehill did well to win the division two league a couple of years ago but the championship is what it's all about. I wouldn't be surprised if they won the championship this year. That would give the club a great lift." Watch this space! Tweet

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