to
make his bow as a Senior player. In
the 1984/85 season he found his appearances restricted and was loaned out
to Milford United to play in the Donegal Premier League where they finished
runners up.
The
following season, despite being at Thomond College, in Limerick he was involved
in the panel for the entire season. It was during this season that he won
his two youth caps both played in Tolka Park, the first in a six-three win
over Northern Ireland and the second in a two-nil win against Iceland. Names
of note from that international panel were the Dolan brothers Pat and Eamonn,
Gary Kelly and Declan Bonner, who also had spells with Harps when his GAA
career allowed it. Liam Tuohy was the manager but Noel O’Reilly and
Brian Kerr were also in the background.
John
Gerard made the tough decision at the end of the season to leave Harps as
he was finding it difficult to travel to and from Harps matches from Limerick
and ended up joining Newcastlewest then plying their trade in the First Division
along with Harps. However, his memories of his time with the Co. Limerick
club revolve around the team bus “which was a converted prison bus,
complete with bullet proof windows”, this he says with a laugh “was
to protect them from rowdy opposition fans.”
Numbered
among them could have been a number of the Harps faithful after a match in
February 1987 when Harps lodged protest about the eligibility of John Gerard.
It was alleged that he appeared against Harps reserve side for Milford United
earlier in the season. However, the FAI threw out Harps protest when it was
found that Newcastlewest had correctly signed him. Further representative
honours came his way when the Irish Universities capped him while at Thomond.
He
stayed for three seasons, while he completed his studies then returned to
Harps in 1989. At that stage he had a choice of two teaching jobs. One in
Athlone which offered around twenty hours a week, and the other in Wicklow
offering around fifteen hours a week, both of which were part time. There
was no choice in the one he would pick. Derek Wilkinson the then Harps Chairman
lived just up the road in Bray and that swung the decision in favour of the
Wicklow School. The two of them became travelling partners on the long haul
up to Donegal. He had joined a young school and knew that it was going to
grow anyway and that a full time position would eventually come in the school.
He and the family are perfectly happy in Wicklow Town, and there are no immediate
plans to return to Donegal.
Throughout
Harps long sojourn in the First Division, the name of John Gerard McGettigan
remained a constant on the teamsheet. It was fitting then that in the Play
Off matches in the 1993/94 season against Cobh Ramblers the name of McGettigan
appeared as the scorer of Harps solitary goal. Harps manager was again Patsy
McGowan and the Ballybofey man gets the nod as the best manager that he has
played under. When one considers that only three managers have not had John
Gerard available to them, namely Eunan Blake, Chris Rutherford and current
incumbent Gavin Dykes it speaks volumes for McGowan. Indeed John G goes on
to comment “Several people influenced my career but none more so than
Patsy, he introduced me to senior football and gave me a lot of advice when
I was younger. Every manager has his faults and Patsy is no exception, but
he is the best I have played under.”
While
he regards winning promotion with Harps as the highlight of his career in
the 1995/96 season it also turned out to be a good season personally for the
Milford man. He played on the National League Division One side that played
the English Semi-Professional side at Kidderminster. Team-mate Jonathan Speak
played alongside him while Lee Hughes who is now at West Brom played for the
opposition. At the end of the season he was selected on the National League
First Divison side.
He
remembers a goal against Kilkenny City (he thinks it was the 1994/95 season)
as the best goal he scored. He recalls “I picked the ball up on the
half-way line, went on a mazy run and scored from about twenty yards out.”
He is however, reticent about the best players he has played with saying “I
have played with and against too many good players to narrow it down to just
a few.”
When
asked as to whether or not he missed being involved with Finn Harps he states
“To be honest, I haven’t missed it yet. I now have a lot more
of time to spend with my family and do other things.” The family consists
of his wife Nicola, another Donegal native, and their three children, Niamh
who is five, Kieran four and Rioghna who is just 18 months. He says it is
hard to tell if Kieran will follow in his father’s footsteps as he prefers
to play with his Nintendo as opposed to a football.
He
has no regrets deciding to retire from the National League scene and is hoping
to turn out for local club Arklow Town in the Leinster Senior League provided
the niggling injuries he has picked up since having his knee operated on clear
up. At the time of writing he is still seeing the specialist. He finds it
easy to travel down the road to training in Arklow, which is only twenty minutes
away. The match now only takes up Sunday afternoon instead of all weekend.
It is the best pitch in Leinster Senior League with fine facilities to back
it up.
While
he would like to earn some of the money in the game nowadays he feels that
the demands made by managers on players are increasing. He feels that some
of the money being paid to players is ridiculous and sees the top Dublin clubs
as the main culprits and feels that Harps could suffer in trying to compete
with them. He would like to see more young players brought through by Harps
trying to offset the need to buy players, he also feels there is enough talent
in Donegal to support the local side. All in all something akin to his own
humble beginnings with Harps.
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