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By the time he was 20 years of age Mark Herrick had played football in the English League, Scottish League, Irish league and the League of Ireland. He had been training at Galway United and with Limerick at the age of 16 when Billy Hamilton the Limerick manager suggested he went to Peterborough on trial. The Cork born but Newcastle raised youngster signed on and over the next two years played youth team and reserve matches and manager Mark Lawrenson included him in the first team squad on several occasions. Having been associated with two former Irish internationals, Hamilton played for Northern Ireland in the 1982 World Cup in Spain while Lawrenson starred for Liverpool and in Jack Charlton's European Championship qualifying team before injury prematurely ended his career, Mark joined a third international in the form of Jimmy Nicholl, formerly of Manchester Utd and Northern Ireland at Raith Rovers. During his time in Scotland he went on loan to Ards in the Irish League. Most of Mark's career was spent in midfield but he also played centre back at Raith. In 1993 the tigerish midfielder joined Galway United and having left school after his Junior Cert, studied for his Leaving Cert at Yeats College in Galway. "The PFA in England always encouraged young players to continue their education so they would have something to fall back on and Gordon Taylor was instrumental in funding my return to Education." Mark learnt the benefit of continuing his education and during his time at Cork City completed his Arts Degree. He was keen to acknowledge the encouragement he received from Jim Brennan, current Principal of ‘The Bish' where Mark now teaches.

In his first season with Galway United the team finished third in the league. "That was a great team to play in and in fact Peter Carpenter, Ricky o Flaherty and Noel Mernagh went on to win the title with St. Pats a couple of seasons later." Terryland was being renovated and that campaign started in the Sportsground and finished at Crowley Park. The Tribesmen were relegated two years later but went on to win the League Cup and the First Division Shield the following season. Mark was ‘Man of the Match' in both legs of the tie and scored against Cork as Galway United demonstrated their resilience. In fact it was because they had done so well in 1993 that other clubs swooped in for their top performers and it took time to rebuild the squad. Life with Galway does seem to be a series of ups and downs and at one stage the committed Herrick offered his wage packet to manager Tony Mannion after a defeat. The wily manager taught him a good lesson that day. "Keep your wages but feel the guilt." His logic was that if a player didn't get paid for a bad performance he was absolved. Whereas if he did get paid he should be guilty that he didn't do enough and try harder next time. However having played against and watched Mark Herrick there is no doubt in my mind that he could never be accused of not giving it everything!

In 1997 Cork City paid a then League of Ireland record fee of £20,000 for the powerful midfielder and in the next 5 seasons finished 4^th, 3rd, 2nd, 2nd, and 3^rd. The team were in Europe each of the five seasons that he was there, with Mark playing a dozen European matches, but unfortunately he missed the 1998 FAI Cup win through injury. "It was a very good team with players like Pat Morley, John Caulfield and Patsy Freyne." However following in his father John's footsteps Mark returned to Terryland to finish his League of Ireland playing career. "I enjoyed my time at Galway United particularly playing alongside so many good players. To name but a few, Donie Farragher, Jumbo Brennan, Peter Carpenter and Gerry Mullan. Donie was a powerful player, with a mighty throw and he complimented my game nicely as I was able to get a head to a lot of those long throws." He rejoined Galway United in 2001 and decided in 2005 to retire. "I was 32 and had been playing since I was 16 so I felt the time was right. With a long term hip injury and changing priorities I decided to call it a day after a match against Limerick. It was full circle really as it was while training there that I got my trial with Peterborough and I certainly enjoyed my playing career."

The story continues however as after a short break Mark returned to the game as player-manager of Renmore. He spent two years there and last year was assistant-manager of the Irish Schools team as well as coaching the Bish team. He was recently appointed assistant-manager to another former Galway United star Johnny Glynn at Mervue, who now enter a new division of the League of Ireland. "I'm really looking forward to working with Johnny and feel that there is great potential for Galway Football with three teams now in the league as Mervue and Salthill Devon strive for promotion to the First Division." Mark does acknowledge that the pie is only so big and that it is hard to get people to support all the various sports in Galway, let alone Ireland. "When you think about it for a country of 4 million people there are so many different sports vying for participation. In the Greater Birmingham area there is a population of around 6 million with 6 main football clubs and not a lot of competition. Whereas in Ireland we have Gaelic football and Hurling, Basketball, Rugby, Athletics etc competing with Soccer and it is difficult to sustain it professionally. Look at the situation in the League of Ireland where more and more clubs are turning professional but do they have an option as if the top clubs can train 5 days a week and your players are working 9 to 5 and then expected to train 3 nights a week, how can you realistically compete? It's catch-22 really because if you want to survive in the Premier Division you need to be full-time. One possible solution would be an All-Ireland League as I feel it would generate greater interest in the sport. It's doubly hard in a city like Galway; being a city of the arts you have a more cosmopolitan population with less people from Galway to support local teams. Whereas in Cork most of the supporters are natives." We discussed the atmosphere at Terryland and like most former players Mark still supports the team regularly. "I am delighted to see the efforts put in by the board at Galway United and feel that we should all be proud of the administrative structures that enable us to compete in the Premier Division. I think that as a nation we have a lot to be proud of in our sporting achievements and that we should get behind our local teams fully." Mark ended with an interesting suggestion to encourage more crowd participation in turning Terryland into a fortress. "There should be a specific part of the ground, like ‘The Shed' at Cork City, where supporters go to sing and bang the drums. Don't go over to that section unless you are going to sing and chant!" I love it! It strikes me as just like something another great Cork born midfielder might have said!!!!!

- Mike Geraghty        http://www.mgwords.com/