The Doctor’s Chair: Moral victories are not necessarily not a bad thing

We almost had them beat.

How often have you heard a manager say that 'we lost it in the last 10 minutes' or 'we put up  a good show for 50 minutes' after a close but ultimate defeat? Ireland is a country in love with moral victories, so in a weekend when a so called 'weaker county' faces a GAA superpower in Croke Park, we've asked our sports psychology consultant Emmett Hughes to assess if there is any value to be taken from a narrow defeat. *** I think there is a shift in mentality among sports teams and especially in the GAA. This is in contrast to what I would term your 'traditional mentality.' The old way of approaching games was the team who 'wants to win more' usually does, and if you are going to win you have to 'want' it more than the opposition and you have to show more 'hunger'. That is somewhat true, but with the increase in sports science and increase in preparation there is a different mentality now and there is just more realism among how teams prepare. It's not a case for sides from Division Three and Four being beaten before they go out when facing elite opposition. However there has to be an understanding that it is going to be a tough day. Going into a game with a pre-conceived idea of what will happen, of things not going well, of losing a match is very negative and that type of thinking is not going to help performance. When you're talking about a 'David V Goliath' type game you can use expectation in a positive manner. You'll hear coaches say that 'we've nothing to lose' and you can look at this game as a situation where you can gain something-not necessarily the result-but maybe other positives such as performance or a goal set out beforehand. The All-Ireland championship sees over 30 teams involved but you can only have one winner. Only a few can make it to September, but a number of  teams can still have a very good summer without being the ultimate winners. Management need to get players to realise that the season is a journey and a progression that is projected in the right way. As a long term model of progress it's probably not ideal but I think when you're involved in playing I think moral victories are crucial. I think that brings its own mindset because games are not totally knockout. A moral victory in the end may be ultimately deflating,but I think there is a lot of merit in getting the process right even if the outcome doesn't go your way but you know that the process was correct. The difference in mentality is very important and it can be what gets one team over the line in any sport. The higher you go the more important it gets because of  the tighter the margins between teams. Visually it is almost impossible to gauge belief or confidence in a player outwardly. It is hard to quantify how much it matters as well-it's not a massive thing overall-but at the crunch time it can the difference. If you can instill confidence in a team then it is hard to know how good they can get. Donegal are a great example. The level of confidence the team reached was probably something not seen in recent times in GAA. It showed how far those players could go with the right mental preparation. Granted they had the athletic ability to back it up as well, but the entire team got to a level that was very very high in their own mental preparation. It's  also hard to quantify how much of a mental advantage someone like Dublin will have this Sunday playing in Croke Park against Longford. In terms of familiarity obviously it is a help, but anyone playing Dublin cannot get tricked into thinking that because Dublin are home they will automatically win. The reality is you are playing them and you may have that one day in ten when you might beat them. That also means that nine times out of ten you may think that you will be beaten. Feeding yourself into that negative mentality is dangerous and you are better to try and work yourself into  thinking 'it's an opportunity to play them and beat them in Croke Park' rather than 'we're going to be beaten again'. It's a challenge. You hear teams and individuals say that they love a challenge and 'bring it on' almost.  This is one of them and one of the biggest out there in GAA and in the football championship. People say this when things are going well and they get the result but it's absent when things don't go so well. You have to look at playing in Croke Park in as positive a way as possible in order to get your preparation right. It always strikes me as odd when sometimes you will hear managers or players saying that they 'knew they were going to be beaten' and the result was somehow pre-ordained. Some might see this as a cop-out but I'm unsure. It comes on a scale. A manager may say to his players that out of 10 attempts we might only win once but that one time could be today. I believe after the game to say that you knew you were going to lose sends a terrible subliminal message to the players. It might be different behind closed doors but it's a dangerous message to be putting out there. *** You can contact Emmett on Twitter