It's not about the game, it's about the winning

I know this is the complete opposite of what we were told when we are younger: it's not about winning, it's about playing, it's about being a team and the sheer enjoyment of playing the game.

Then you see a great big, shiny trophy like The Sam Maguire Cup and you realize they've been lying to you all along. It is about winning and winning feels GOOD (just look at the faces on those Kerry boys).

Since we started the club two years ago we've had our fair share of highs and lows on the field. We've been handed our collective arses and we've done a wee bit of Gaelic spanking ourselves.

So in the coming year I'm looking forward to being a winner, but also realizing that you can learn a lot about yourself in defeat. You learn from competing against better opponents to get better and stronger. And unlike games where everybody is a winner and you all go home with medals, in gaelic football you only get to go home with a bruised ego.

Photo via BBC Sports

Our share of the glory from summer 2009