Newcastle Jets striker Roy O’Donovan ready to resume his A-League career after serving 10-match ban
At the end of his 10-match ban, the hardest thing for Newcastle striker Roy O’Donovan hasn’t been the criticism or the damage to his reputation. It is the pent-up energy from his extended time on the sidelines.
The hardest thing for Roy O’Donovan hasn’t necessarily been the intense criticism from pundits, or the damage to his reputation.
Instead, as the end of his 10-match ban for his grand final lunge into the face of Melbourne Victory goalkeeper Lawrence Thomas comes into view, O’Donovan has become a “coiled spring” according to one good friend.
Footballers train towards expounding an explosion of energy every weekend, but for the Irishman there has been no outlet and no release, just a ticking off of the calendar until round nine.
Some demanded even an harsher penalty for a head-high tackle described as one of the worst to come in front of the A-League’s disciplinary tribunal, but O’Donovan believes he has paid his dues from sitting out the first nine rounds.
“That’s been a difficult one to manage, I’ll be honest with you,” O’Donovan told The Daily Telegraph. “Since I was a kid I’ve been obsessed with football, with winning, with getting better.
“No one puts a higher demand on themselves than me, but it has been difficult, not getting any release when I’ve been training so hard. The sports science guys and the coaching staff have pushed me hard and I’ve been doing as much as I can.
“But I’ve probably felt annoyed and a bit let down. So now I just want to get back to playing football again.”
Predictably his focus is on “moving on” from the incident — “it happened, it was instinctive and I was trying to score,” he said. But as a result he has had “a hiatus away from the game” during which coach Ernie Merrick says the striker has never trained harder.
“Since I’ve come in there’s been a big buy-in to what Lawrie McKinna and Ernie are doing, and part of that is that how I carry myself in training is important,” said O’Donovan.
“It’s important that I keep up with the younger lads, and try to push them to be more ambitious.”
Even he has to laugh that coincidence means his return comes in the F3 derby against his former club, though he insists the game will have “no emotion” — a frame of mind he also hopes applies to match officials judging the way he plays, despite previous bans for headbutting and elbowing.
“All you want in life is that you get as you give,” he said. “If I give honesty, I hope that’s what I get back.
“I feel a little bit like this thing from a previous life has followed me, and that it doesn’t matter how I portray myself.
“But the way I play is the way I learnt — I’ll do anything to help my team, and my job within that is to score goals.
“I feel I’ve been dealt a few harsh hands but I can only be myself. I think anyone who’s ever played with me would want me on their side.
“Everyone’s entitled to their opinion, but I’m not really one for reading lots of media and taking those on board. I tend to make my own mind up, and I hope and expect the public will do the same. There’s a lot of politics in Australian football.
“But at least now the waiting is over. This is it. This is the big week.”
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