WHEN you think of him picture blue sky, imagine Clones dolled-up to the nines on Championship Sunday.
Feel the sun on your back, hear the excitement in the stands as Tyrone and Derry tear into each other out on the field.
The scene is set: There isn’t long left and the game is all-square.
Stephen Lawn attacks but he’s closed down by defenders.
In need of help, he turns and looks for support.
Jody Gormley offers it and shows for his pass.
He takes the ball, his left boot swings…
The crowd erupts in a mix of cursing and cheering.
Gormley has won it for Tyrone.
From the archives: Jody Gormley taught me how to play gaelic football claims Alan Davidson
ALMOST 30 years on from that memorable day, Jody Gormley doesn’t look much different. He’d still be able to get into the number nine jersey he wore. And the red and white togs.
He’s still got that admirable head of thick ginger hair and the ready smile.
But life has changed and changed utterly.
The terrible truth is that time is running out on the 53 year-old from Trillick.
“Crazy times,” he says when we spoke on Monday a couple of days after the bombshell about his cancer diagnosis dropped and stunned us all.
You’d expect ours to have been a crazy conversation but he’s so calm, reasonable and positive. He lived his life with dignity and determination and that won’t change.
The last time we’d spoken was three weeks’ previously. He told me who he’d had a stroke while on holiday in Florida but was recovering, was getting back to his old self and was back managing Trillick.
The future seemed bright.
Unfortunately, it only ‘seemed’ that way…
“I had severe abdominal pain in September and when I went into hospital they did a CT scan and discovered that there was something on my liver,” he explains.
“After a biopsy they discovered it was stage four liver cancer and it’s a very rare type - endocrine carcinoma it’s called. It’s very aggressive.
“So in a very short period of time I went from recovering from a stroke to being hit with a sledgehammer.
“They felt that possibly the cancer caused the stroke but they don’t know for certain. One of the oncologists described this cancer as ‘particularly nasty’.”
For heaven’s sake, this man was in the gym when he had the stroke. He was working out, he was in great shape! He was dealing with it and then… This. It’s too cruel.
Somehow he is able to absorb the shock and process it.
“I think years of training develops physical mental toughness,” he says.
“I really do. I would have a very positive outlook on life so I just kind of took it on the chin.
“We always talk about challenges in sport and there are challenges in life as well. What do you do? You just have to look down the barrel of the gun and say: ‘Right, this is what I’ve got to deal with here, I’m just going to have to make the most of it’.
“They (the doctors) can’t give a finite time and say: ‘Right, on day dot your time is up’. But it’s not long, the sands of time are running out fairly rapidly is my understanding. So it’s just about making the most of the time with the family and friends as best we can for as long as I’ve got left. That’s the plan.
“Mentally I’m strong, I’m upbeat about it. I had a good friend ‘Bucket’ O’Neill who died tragically earlier in the year – he took a heart attack – who didn’t get an opportunity to say goodbye to people. So I feel lucky that I have an opportunity to meet people and say my goodbyes.
“I was involved with the football right up until last weekend which was great. For what it’s worth, life goes on, that’s just the reality.”
IT was his wife Deirdre, a physio, who identified the stroke that came out of the wide blue yonder in Orlando. Jody’s arm became numb, Deirdre was called and her decisiveness meant he was taken to hospital rapidly and me made a complete physical and cognitive recovery.
He’d been working out with his son James (20) in the hotel gym when he had the stroke. James is the middle child with sister Aine (24) and Niamh (16) on either side.
“It was tough telling them,” says Jody.
“But they’re our kids, they’re tough kids and they’re dealing with it as best they can. You know… Obviously it’s shattering news to hear that your father is in such a state of ill-health but it would appear to me that they’re coping very well.
“It’s not a matter of me having to be strong for them, it’s just the way it is. It’s not an act, that’s just the way we are. If there’s a challenge you deal with it and obviously some are more serious than others but you do your best in the circumstances.
“I’m not into self-pity, I appreciate others’ empathy but I just get on with it, cold and all as that might seem. I’m going to live out the rest of my life the way I’ve lived up to now.”
DESPITE the cards he has been dealt, he considers himself a lucky man. Lucky to have been brought up in the bosom of a loving family in the close-knit community of Trillick. To have grown tall and strong with the talent to wear the Red Hand on his breast. To have played midfield on a brilliant Tyrone team that won Ulster and reached the All-Ireland final. To have achieved all he has as a coach and manager with Down and Antrim, Bredagh, the Abbey and Trillick. To have been a positive influence on the lives of a generation of young men as a teacher and to have made many lasting friendships…
Most of all, to have met Deirdre and with her bring up Aine, James and Niamh.
“I’ve been very fortunate,” he says.
“I’ve got a great family.
“Over the past couple of years being back down managing Trillick has been an unbelievable experience. Dealing with the group of people that I’ve been involved with there in terms of management and players… I mean it has been an unbelievable experience and that has been very important to me.”
Football is central to family life. His son James, a chip off the old block, travelled up and down the road from the family home in Belfast to Trillick with him. He plays for the reserves and is chasing the dream of breaking into the senior team.
One of his dad’s earliest memories is his uncle Jody teaching him how to solo a ball on that left foot of his.
“Sport is an intrinsic part of me. It’s central to who I am,” says Jody.
“It’s always been a big part of my life as a player and as a coach and it has been a big part of the family life.”
His uncle Barney Gormley (his godfather) played for Tyrone back in the 1970s and Seamus Gormley, a cousin of his father’s, played underage for the county.
Jody and his brother Damian raised the family bar in the 1990s.
“I’ve had great experiences through football,” he says.
“Maybe not that much success playing for Trillick, but certainly with Tyrone U21s we won two All-Irelands in 1991 (when they stuffed Kerry by 20 points) and 1992 (when Galway were the opposition).
“The highlight of my career was probably scoring the winning point against Derry in the Ulster semi-final in 1995 on the way to the All-Ireland final.
“Then the experience of playing and training with such an excellent group of players we had in Tyrone at that time was amazing. We came up a bit short in the final but it didn’t take away from the journey and I made a lot of good friends there.
“Then getting involved in coaching and getting the opportunity to be on the sideline at Croke Park with Antrim. It was the Tommy Murphy Cup but it was great for me – not everybody gets that opportunity and then to win the Hogan Cup with the Abbey (CBS, Newry) the only Hogan Cup we’ve ever won. The successes I’ve had and the friendships I’ve built…
“It’s a privilege to be part of the GAA, I think it’s the most amazing sporting organisation in the world and I feel great pride that I have made some contribution to it.
“That’s a memory I’ll take with me.”
WE hope and pray it’s not the case, but it seems that last Friday night’s Tyrone championship final may have been Jody’s last active involvement in football.
He’d guided Trillick to the title last year and the team was chasing a rare two in-a-row in Tyrone. They didn’t quite make it. Errigal Ciaran won a typically hard-fought decider by a point and afterwards, back at the club, Jody broke the news to his players and colleagues about his condition.
“That was tough,” he says.
“I had known for a couple of weeks and I was going up and down to training but I was holding the information. I had told the management and my family but it was a very small circle and I wanted to keep it tight to protect the team.
“There’s devastation after you lose a championship final – the boys went out and put in a gallant effort but on the day we didn’t perform as well as we could and Errigal, fair play to them, were better.
“After the game we went back to Trillick and the boys were down and I just felt maybe it was the time. You’re not always going to get the players in the one room at the one time so I felt it was the time. I’ve got a close bond with that group, they’re an exceptional group of people and I wanted to deliver the message rather than Chinese Whispers.
“It was tough. You do grow close to players when you’ve coached them but hopefully they’ll benefit from the toughness of the experience. There are no fairytales in life or football… We didn’t win the championship final and it would have been a nice way for me to sign off. We didn’t win the match and I’ve got a terminal illness… But life still goes on.
“That’s the cruel reality and we sat down together afterwards and we had food in the hall, it was emotional but you have to take it on the chin and keep going.”
YOU’D probably like to think that if you were facing what he is you’d have the same positive attitude. You’d like to think you could meet your fate head on and enjoy whatever time is left to you.
Yes, you’d like to think that but many of us would crumble under the sheer enormity and finality of it all.
“You have to have a positive outlook,” says Jody.
“Life is going to throw many challenges at you. I said to some of the boys at Trillick: Last June, I would have been coming up the road back to Belfast after training.
“I’d probably have been sitting in the car at about 90-mile an hour probably on the motorway listening to ACDC at full throttle… We’d had a good training session, everybody in good form, heading out in Belfast for a couple of pints thinking I was king of the world.
“Things can change very quickly and you have to live in the moment, enjoy every moment you have and keep looking forward. Set yourself small goals, be grateful for what you have and surround yourself with good people.
“That’s easier said than done but I’ve been very fortunate that I’ve always had good people around me, I’ve got good friends and family and I would feel I’ve built up good relationships with the people I’ve been in contact with over the years.
“Hopefully I’ve had some sort of positive impact on them so, yeah, I’ve got much to be thankful for.”
ON Thursday he met with friends and colleagues for a drink at the Parador Bar in Belfast.
He said warm ‘hellos’ and sidestepped fuss when it came to ‘goodbyes’.
“This will sound funny,” he says.
“But if it wasn’t for the ill-health I’m in good health.
“I feel good, mentally strong, I can do whatever I need to do, I’m not in any deal of pain…
“I can go about my business and I’ve got great support. I’ll live my life out and be grateful that I have the opportunity to meet people. Some of the messages I’ve received have been humbling to the point of embarrassment.
“But it’s nice to think that I’ve made some sort of impact.
“You’ve got to be happy with that…”
He gives thanks for the life he’s had although it’s far too short.
A player, team-mate, teacher, coach, manager, friend, son, brother, husband, father… He has touched lives in every role.
We should be grateful for the time we’ve had with the man and maybe try to take a leaf out of his book.
He sees the best in people.
Remember that when you think of Jody Gormley.
