Galway midfielder Tom Flynn pictured ahead of Sunday's Connacht SFC Final against Roscommon.
By Cian O'Connell
When Tom Flynn reported for Galway minor duty the whispers started: a fetching centrefielder was beginning to emerge in the west.
Flynn's promise and potential was evident during an eventful 2010 All Ireland Minor Championship when Galway scored five goals at the penultimate stage, but still lost a 3-15 to 5-8 thriller to Cork.
That match also featured Fiontan O'Curraoin in maroon and white, while Adrian Varley is also currently involved in the Galway panel. Cork's Tom Clancy, Jamie Wall, Damien Cahalane, Brian Hurley, and Luke Connolly have made marks in various ways in different codes too. It was a good stage to be operating on with Flynn and O'Curraoin graduating instantly into the senior ranks in 2011 playing in a qualifier defeat against Meath.
"We lost in a qualifier," Flynn recalls. "Obviously it was very close and then in 2012 we lost to Antrim by a point. I came off the bench that day. I think it was Padraic Joyce’s last game with Galway unfortunately. Looking from those defeats, we’re in a slightly healthier place now."
Flynn won All Ireland Under 21 medals in 2011 and 2013, but acknowledges it was difficult for emerging players to make the step up at the time.
“It was a tough situation to be in," Flynn admits. "There was two or three of us came in at 18/19 and we were thrown straight into wing-forward and midfield and much more inexperienced and lighter and not as clued in as we all are now.
Tom Flynn remains an important player for Galway.
"I suppose going from a young lad at 18 or 19 playing in an All-Ireland under-21 final and then going into a senior game with grown men, probably not as well developed tactically as we are now, was a tough place to be in - in 2013."
Valuable lessons were learned, especially when Mayo earned a chilling win at Pearse Stadium on a day when Galway started 14 players, who had claimed All Ireland Under 21 medals. "Probably my worst memory in a Galway jersey is that loss to Mayo in 2013, which came on the back of seeing one of my best friends lift an under-21 title days prior to that," Flynn states.
"I suppose to go from that high as an under-21 player to that low as a senior player in such quick succession has probably really kept in my memory. I’d often use that as a bit of motivation.
"In saying that, from where we’ve come, Kevin (Walsh) has brought great organisation and huge clarity to where we are as a team and while nationally we take knocks for certain styles of play or whatever, has that sort of a defeat happened overly often?
"You would say, compared to previous years, no. We haven’t lost to Antrim, we haven’t lost to Wexford, we haven’t scraped past Waterford and other teams. "While obviously those teams on their day can catch someone, we would like to think if we’re fully prepared with this team, those sort of defeats aren’t part of where we’re at."
A Maths and Physical Education teacher in Merlin College in Doughiska Flynn enjoys the challenge of operarting in a new school in Galway city. “Yeah I was in Roscommon Community College, I taught down there with Conor Devaney and Shane Killoran, so two great years down there," Flynn says.
Tom Flynn in Connacht Senior Football Championship action for Galway against London last month.
"Footballing-mad and farming-mad. Obviously Dad’s from Roscommon as well so there’s all the banter and craic with that, but yeah, two great years down there, then we applied for redeployment up to Galway and thankfully got granted so a shorter commute now.
Sport matters deeply to Flynn, who is relishing the task. "I suppose there’s four or five of us trying to get GAA off the ground in the school," Flynn admits.
"I know St James’ are the local club and if I were a James’ clubman I’d be having a full-time coach down there because there’s some seriously untapped potential and guys that would make a serious inter-county career, but just have no experience at all or no one to coax them along but it’s a great little school.
"In Doughiska, it’s a new enough area so people wouldn’t be too aware of it, but basketball and football, we’re driving the boat out with that anyway."
Flynn's enthusiasm and willingness to graft has been a feature in the Galway football senior tale for nine years.
During that journey good times were spent living with the Smith brothers from Roscommon, while studying in DCU. The mission is to ensure Galway now remain a respected force, and Flynn continues to occupy a central role.
