GAA players need to ignore trolls, says Patrick Horgan

Players need to be mentally tough and savvy to survive the social media abuse which, according to Cork hurler Patrick Horgan, has absolutely no place in the GAA.

Horgan has seen first hand the abuse players, team-mates of his, have received from anonymous social media trolls, but he says the players need to be strong enough to turn a blind eye.

“It’s really annoying,” says the former All Star, “when you see fellas nearly crying leaving training. They can hardly move, like. Then to see that happening after probably one mistake out of a whole match. Everyone makes mistakes. That’s when they’ll say it, when no one can say anything back to them. I don’t think there is a place for it, anyway.”

Following Cork’s Munster championship exit last June, full back Damien Cahalane, only 22 at the time, spoke out about the abuse he had received on Twitter. Horgan, though, is less concerned by the views of these so-called fans, and thinks others should adopt a similar mindset.

‘The same people’

“To be honest, I couldn’t care less because it’s the same people. If you do something well the next week they will be your best friends.

“The people that say that on social media aren’t the people who are out training four, five six nights a week, giving everything they have to do their best for their county. But I’d say lads are strong enough to just push that aside and move on.”

For now, though the microscope is off the players, it’s the off-season or the preseason, rather, where all the unseen work begins. Cork, however, are taking a more relaxed approach this year, under the tenure of new manager Kieran Kingston. “It’s a bit of a boost getting somebody new even though the last lads were brilliant. But we’re just happy to kick off and see what the story is for the year.”

Last year proved a disappointing one for Cork: a Munster semi-final defeat to Waterford was followed up by wins against Wexford and Clare – before a 2-28 to 0-22 defeat to Galway in the last eight.

“We’re not bad. You can’t just go from beating Clare and playing so well in that game to not playing well at all against Galway.

“That happens a bit too much. We won Munster last year and were looking like the best team in the country but one slip against Tipp and we just couldn’t get it back. That’s disappointing as well. We just can’t have that happening once a year because if you do you’re sitting at home for the rest of the year.”