+- Simulation Soccer League (https://forum.simulationsoccer.com)
+-- Forum: Player Development (https://forum.simulationsoccer.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=5)
+--- Forum: Capped Point Tasks (https://forum.simulationsoccer.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=23)
+---- Forum: Articles (https://forum.simulationsoccer.com/forumdisplay.php?fid=46)
+---- Thread: McGlynns Journey #3 (/showthread.php?tid=9768)
McGlynns Journey #3 - Definia - 2026-06-04
End of the Season
I don't think at any point I ever expected this academy experience to go the way it did. There comes a point in your life you sit and you look back at decisions you have made and reflect on the change of paths you put yourself on for your future and how you find yourself in the position you are in. Today, I find myself lying on my couch just chilling having that look back on the last 9 weeks wondering... Did I do enough? Did I play my best? Did I train hard enough? Have I impressed the scouts? I just said, sometimes you look back on the decisions you have made and how they affect your future, but now I'm at that point where my future is now out of my hands. So I lie here, quizzing myself and feeling trapped by my worst enemy... my mind. To beat that feeling though maybe instead of overthinking about whats going to happen, maybe i'll look back on what I've done this season and try to overcome that overwhelming feeling of underachievement, because it was quite a rough season for us at Port Royal.We started off on a such a high, man I think I could be chasing that high for the rest of my career! We performed so well, our first game together, it all just clicked! I managed to bag 2 goals on my debut and we won so it really could not have went any better. Thankfully we had that high because the rest of the season was so up and down. We lost quite a few games on the bounce, we tried and tried so hard to perform well on the park but it just wasn't happening. Then we went through a spell of some wins then we fell flat again towards the end of the season. However, we did finish the season as we started, with a victory. So all in it was a very average season, not at the bottom but nowhere near the top. I was played in a few positions through out the season, behind our striker, then out left for a game or two and then finished the season playing up top with Owen Goal, we hit it off sometimes, chemistry was there but it came and went sometimes, but that was quite indicative of our season as a whole for the whole team.
I met some great people on my team, lads that I would love to play alongside come the minors after the draft but I don't know what that is going to look like. Amongst the craziness of the season I actually picked up a wee job within the league. Was walking along the corridor to training one day when I came across the notice board, never really paid much attention to it before til then, so maybe that was a sign. It was an old post about hiring an Intern for the Board of Directors, I wasn't sure if it was still an active post or not so after training that day I went back to my apartment and put together an application for the post. It was a position that seemed quite interesting, I would be required to keep the matchday schedules up to date on the website and I would be tasked with verifying and approving new applications for players to join the academy. Then on the side it would allow me to be privvy to internal discussions surrounding the league, the day to day running, maintenance and decision making into the future of the league. That would be great, getting that look behind the scenes as to how it all runs would be great for my development as a player too! It didn't take long to get word back from Zoone, The Co-Commissioner, saying that my application was successful! I couldn't believe it, I didn't genuinely expect such a position since I was literally a few weeks in the front door, so I was never going to let any of the BoD down nevermind myself, I wanted to take every single bit of knowledge I could from this job.
Then came the scouts, god it was so daunting and surreal to begin with. I didn't know what to expect! What questions were they going to ask? What answers were they looking for? I just constantly ran over my mind "Don't say something stupid". Again there was my worst enemy talking to me... my mind. Turns out it was never anything to bad, all the scouts were fantastic folks to chat with. They were so helpful, they all know exactly what position you are in, that overwhelming feeling of not wanting to disappoint, beacuse they were in this position once before too! Once I got that into my head I seemed to settle down a bit, I mean I had to, there was at most 12 scouts to talk with so I couldn't really be a nervous mess talking to them all!
After the season ended, myself and some of my classmates came up with an idea that we could play a sort of All Stars game amongst ourselves to celebrate the end of the season. A lot of us were buzzing at the prospect of playing alongside opponents from the season, some fantastic players in this class that I really, really wanted to play alongside at least once in my career! We got the go ahead from the BoD. We had someone to help setup the match but we needed managers and players, so I offered to take a team, and my mate Joshua Homme said he would pick the other team! So we sat down and we picked our teammates and we had a field day with it. Two brilliant teams of what were opponents all season long now would be teammates for one match. It was great, it was a laugh from start to finish, no one taking it too seriously, just wanting to have a casual game to let off the nerves of post season waiting for the draft.
So bringing myself back to the present after looking back I think I can be quite happy with myself and how I've conducted myself throughout the season. On the pitch I did as much as I could, we all did, it just wasn't clicking at certain points when we needed to, but we persevered and not once did we ever give up. So I think that heavily goes in my favour. I did everything I could off the pitch as well, attending as much of the social activities as I could, designed to bring classmates together and develop relationships as we'll hopefully be spending the rest of our careers together, whether with or against each other. I picked up a great job and I believe I performed that to the best of my abilities as well, hopefully I performed so well that the board will want to keep me on in a full BoD position.. who knows!
Yes. That's it, one word, Yes. Yes I did do enough, I can settle my nerves, what am I getting myself so worked up for! It was a brilliant season, regardless of performances. A surreal experience, I am nervous as hell for the draft but it's an exciting nervousness. There's only a few days now til we know publicly, as at this point the draft internally behind closed doors is probably finished. Shit... now im bloody buzzing! 10 minutes ago I was lying chilling on the couch overhtinking it all, now I'm pacing the bloody appartment trying to figure out how to make time go quicker...
RE: McGlynns Journey #3 - McLumberjack - 2026-06-04
Bright future ahead :)