NEW FARNEY COACH SHANE RICE HOPING TO HIT THE GROUND RUNNING

LGFA

JACK MADDEN

Who knows when the inside GAA world was first sworn to secrecy? From the outside there is so little to hide, but still for the majority of us, it remains hidden. Out of touch. You can’t help but feel the inside of a dressing room has all the drama of a battlefield. You creep up, peak through the door, and then inside everything freezes like a “Toy Story” scene, stunned by even the slightest level of human interaction. A fear of exposure. And yet, every so often, someone different rears their head.

In a regular situation they would be considered normal, but here they are so open and honest that they go against the grain. Scotstown’s Shane Rice fits that bill. Recently appointed as the Monaghan senior ladies’ strength and conditioning coach under new manager Kieran Kearns, Rice has followed a rather unorthodox path, far from under the radar. Had he been born in a previous era; he may not have found himself on this career path at all.

A manipulation of the Internet in the most positive sense, an unshaken self-belief, and now a 15,000 strong following on Instagram that makes his name ring a bell with many of the youth in and outside the county. And he continues to expand. The Internet is a place for information to be stored, but this information only spreads in the presence of characters. Away from the online world, Rice and Kearns were in fact little other than strangers…