Oliver Kavanagh has been involved with St Colmcille's as a player, selector and committee member over the last 40 years. Many committee members and selectors in GAA clubs give lifetime service to the organisation. Most are involved from an early age and for one committed Meath GAA man, he has achieved all that. Oliver 'Jackser' Kavanagh has served St Colmcille's GAA club throughout his life. This year, the Cooperhill man (on the Drogheda outskirts) had a different role. "I've been involved in the club for the last 40 years and played minor football when I was 14. This year I took a sabbatical for the first time in 20 years. I was involved with the Meath juniors. We got to the All-Ireland final and I enjoyed that," he says. The change from player to selector was "a natural progression" he says. Although his father was involved in the club, he is the only other family member to have given the service he did. His three daughters now go to matches though they are not actively involved in the club. Though many might find it a difficult task to play with and pick a team, Oliver states that it wasn't too difficult being a player-manager as there was a good bunch of lads involved at the time. Still there are inevitable headaches. Footballers will never be quite happy with their lot. Players can be played out of position or when a player is dropped, it can mean breaking difficult decisions to somebody. "Yeah it can be difficult at times but you do what you think is right. You're never going to please anyone and some take it better than others. You try and just have a happy camp but all you can do is your best," he says. He realises too that there is a limited amount a selector can do from the sideline. Switches can be made but he knows a player can have more of an impact on the field. "Yeah, it was easier playing. You can try and make changes from the sideline but they don't always work. When you are playing you are in a position to rectify things," he says. He began his administrative work as a committee member at the club before becoming chairman in his mid to late twenties. The job of chairman was, he says, a job nobody wanted in the same way that these jobs are hard to fill today. Football can be addictive. When you've played, selected and served on committees, it can be difficult to escape from the rigours of training and the tedious nature of selecting teams. And now that he has some respite from selection dilemmas does he ever see himself returning to pick a team? "Never say never. But now I can go to matches because I want to and not because I have to. Maybe I was doing it when I shouldn't have been doing it and now I'm not doing it when I should! But you do what you think is right at the time," he says. Being a selector can undoubtedly help a person's analysis of football. Amongst the changes he'd like to see include the pick-up off the ground which he thought worked well during its experimental stage in the National League. Introducing something akin to the Aussie Rules mark would, he believes, be just reward for those who field a ball, particularly from kick-outs. Moreover, the former midfielder is a bit disappointed that stamina has replaced skill in the modern game. "Fitness levels have now changed and is emphasised ahead of skill levels. Players are not able to deliver passes and sometimes not able to kick the ball over the bar from 30 yards," he says. That said, he praises those in his own club for their work with young Gaelic players. Competition from other sports is one of the challenges facing the GAA. As a young player, he says, Gaelic football was people's sole outlet. Now he identifies sports such as soccer and particularly rugby as providing an alternative to our national games. The pinnacle of his career came when St Colmcille's won a junior title in 1983. Still, there appears a tinge of regret that the club did not progress after winning it. "I won a junior championship in 1983 when I was coming to the end of my playing career (he was also a selector on that team). We beat Moynalty that year and then we lost the Intermediate final the following year to Slane. "At the time you think it's great but you'd like to be able to move on. We were unfortunate not to beat Slane in 1984 and I think we'd have made an impression at senior level had we won that game. In 1983 we had six or seven lads who were on the Meath minor team. Pat O'Neill, who was involved in the Meath minor board, would have been very influential at that time," he says. Meath's county team burst onto the national scene in the 1980s. Sean Boylan managed to unearth the best talent in the county and within the space of a few seasons, the county won two All-Ireland titles in successive years. St Colmcille's provided two vital links to Boylan's team with Robbie O'Malley and Bernard Flynn giving long service to the Royals. But the club also had other notable players. He mentions players such as Brendan Beakey and Gerry Berrill, who captained the team to that '83 triumph. Oliver is Transport Manager for the oil distributor, Texaco Oil, a company which employs 50 people nationwide. Jokingly he explains where his priorities lay in life over the years. Combining football with work was never a problem as "football always came first". On a more serious note, he says he'd work during the day and have time for football in the evening. Selecting teams and viewing matches over the years will have given him wonderful insight into the quality of football in Meath. Eamonn Barry's appointment will mean a new managerial face for the first time in 23 seasons. He may not be involved now but does he think there is a good crop of players under which Barry can work? "That's a good question. They have a fresh face with new ideas and I thought when they played against Dublin there was potential there. They played well and maybe if the right switches were made, it would have been different. It is hard to see them (winning an All-Ireland) unless they can unearth a few Flynns and O'Malleys but they might be able to win a Leinster title," he says. Tweet

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