Former Donegal Star Anton Carroll The importance if a positive mental attitude in achieving success was forcibly brought home to Anton Carroll during his long career in gaelic football. Carroll played ten years for Donegal, helping the county to its first Ulster title in 1972. It was a magnificent achievement for a county that had rarely featured in the end of season honours list up to then. Anton, however, feels Donegal should have won a provincial title long before '72. "Donegal had a very good team in the sixties. I think it was better then the team that actually won the Ulster title in seventy two. We had players like John Hannigan, Paul Kelly, P.J. Flood, Sean O'Donnell, Sean Ferriter, all super players, an exceptional team but somehow they just never quite managed to get over the psychological barrier all Donegal teams had to overcome in those days. We finally managed to win the title but we had the talent in the sixties". Now the principal of the Greendale Community School in Kilbarrack in Dublin, Anton Carroll feels mental attitude can mean all the difference in the search for glory. "It is amazing how a team can limit itself through fear or anxiety. In our time there was little attention played to getting the players minds ready before big games, it is mostly down to getting yourself physically right. Now there is a big emphasis on getting players mentally right, it is part of the game and it can make all the difference between success and failure". While Donegal shrugged off the restraints in Ulster in '72, the All-Ireland semi final presented a new set of difficulties. "Going out to play Offaly we were like frightened chickens and we never played to our best form and lost out although it was only by a few points. It was a whole new situation for us and we probably needed another chance to play in Croke Park before a big crowd". Throughout his career Anton played his club football with his beloved Gweedore, growing up in the Gaeltacht area and it was there he began to earn a reputation as a talented footballer who could make it at the highest level. As a youngster Anton remembers watching a player who was to go on to make a name for himself in another code. "I can recall Pat Crerand playing for Gweedore around 1957 or Minor football for the club for at least two years and he was very accomplished gaelic footballer. Pat was born in Glasgow but his other was from Gweedore and he went to school there for a while as did his sisters". Anton Carroll was to prove himself an accomplished all round athlete in his own right. Attending St. Enda's Secondary school in Galway he won a Connacht high jump title. It was his brothers Padraig, who was also a noted athlete, and Francie who played football for Donegal at most grades. After serving his 'apprenticeship' at underage level Anton quickly made it onto the Gweedore Senior team, establishing a regular place for himself on the starting fifteen, usually taking back line. By this time however the club was starting to slip into a decline it is still struggling to recover from. "During the fifties and early sixties Gweedore dominated Senior football in Donegal and produced some top class players. People like Hughie Tim Boyle who is a well known ad successful hotelier and who played a couple of years for Donegal. He was a key player with the club. Gweedore started to decline in the early sixties and since then they haven't won a Senior title and are playing Division Two now", he says. Living and working in Dublin for the past thirty years has not diminished Anton Carroll's affinity for his native village. Throughout his many years as a footballer he maintained his contacts with Gweedore G.F.C. even if this meant travelling long distances to play in games. "I would say I made the trip back to Donegal up to thirty times a year. I even drove up to Gweedore to play in League games. I also went back to play in the Gaeltacht Championships (a competition he was instrumental in establishing). I never thought much about going back up for a game, it was always my objective to try and help out Gweedore whenever I could", says Anton who during his student days also turned out for U.C.D. and Erins Hope (the team representing St. Patrick's Training College in Drumcondra). Recalling his days in club football Carroll has many fond memories to look back on but there is one regret. "I played for twenty two years with Gweedore yet we never won a Senior county title. I won four medals with U.C.D., two Erin's Hope but I never won a Donegal Senior medal which was disappointed. I had to settle instead for a few League honours". Anton's intercounty career started on a triumphant note when he helped Donegal to successive Ulster Under 21 titles in 1963 and '64, captaining the '64 side. The Gweedore native had made his Senior debut in the Autumn of 1963, getting the chance to show his skills against Derry in a challenge. Previous to that he lad lined out alongside a certain Brian McEniff on the county Minor team. By the time Donegal reached the Ulster Senior final - 1966, Carroll was a seasoned campaigner on the intercounty front. Although the men from the north west lost out to Down the occasion left Anton Carroll with many memories. "We played the game on the day after the World Cup Final between England and West Germany and I remember we stopped off on the way to Belfast to see the game. Going into the Ulster final we had every reason to feel optimistic as we had beaten them in the League and by about ten points in the Lagan Cup. We had every reason to be confident but we were paralysed by the occasion. It was the first Ulster final to be transmitted live on T.V. We just didn't do ourselves justice though. If we had played them before or after we probably would have won", he added. Despite the defeat Anton believes the match was an important part of Donegal's learning process a process which bore fruit six years later. "By 1972 most of us known what it was like to play in an Ulster Senior final and this experience stood to us. An Ulster title was an Everest for us to climb and I don't think we would be to do it without that experience to help us". The final score read, Donegal 2-13, Tyrone 1-11. In the All-Ireland semi final the Ulster Champions lost out to eventual winners Offaly in a game the Gweedore native would rather forget. "Again we failed to do ourselves justice in this match and I was involved in giving a goal to Offaly that was to prove crucial to the final outcome. Maybe it was a lack of self assuredness on the big stage. At one level we did OK but then blew it". The following year Anton drew the curtain down on his intercounty career. Reflecting on it now who would be regarded as his most difficult opponent? "I would say he was by far the player that gave me the most trouble against Sean O'Neill a few times and I would say he was by far the player that gave me the most trouble although fellows like Benny Gaughran of Louth and Mayo's John Morley were very tricky players to mark". Regarding the 1972 Ulster final as his most memorable game Anton Carroll also played in the Donegal Galway League game when the famous Neilly Gallagher penalty incident occurred. "Neilly was about to take a penalty when the ball blew of the spot and the referee ended up giving a free out", he recalls. Married to Mary with two girls Ciara and Maria, Anton Carroll has lost none of his passion for Donegal football and was one of those who shouted the loudest when Anthony Molloy raised the Sam Maguire to the rain laden skies in 1992. It was then Anton Carroll finally knew Donegal footballers had rid themselves of the mental restraints that had dogged them for so long. Taken from Hogan Stand magazine 3rd March, 1995 Tweet

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