How Damien Comer Not Making School Team Due To His Size Created "That Dog" In Him
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Damien Comer may be a monster of man now, smashing into defenders like a human wrecking ball, but there was once a time that he was considered too small to play even for his school.
The flying full forward also didn't make it for the Galway minor team, and physically, he struggled to compete with the top players in his age group at that time.
However, his physique, or lack of, meant that he had to develop other areas of his game, and when his body finally caught up with him, he became the All-Star forward that is currently helping his county charge for four Connacht titles in a row.
Speaking exclusively on the latest episode of The Puke Football Podcast, the Kelloggs GAA Cúl Camps ambassador and Galway footballer, explained why missing out on his Hogan Cup school's team played a role in helping his development.
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“There probably was a loss of interest as well, but I think that if you’re not the size required for coming into school’s football, then you’re limited to a couple of positions.
“You’re going to be in the corner somewhere, either corner forward or corner back because of size.
“In terms of development, I think when you’re younger and smaller, you have to battle for everything, and I see this now as a school teacher working with younger lads - the smaller lads who are battling away might be struggling a little bit, but you know they will be fine.
“While the bigger lads who are getting it easy when they’re younger, they always struggle - if they don’t work on their skills, they always struggle when they get older.
“Everyone is going to get bigger, and everyone is going to get stronger, fitter, faster, but if you can have that competitive edge when you were younger, where you had to scrap for every ball, and that would have been me, a bit of a dog in me."
This isn't a new tale, as we have all heard of the young county prodigy who was almost too good and big for their own good, and eventually amounted to nothing in the game.
The problem was, everyone else caught up to them on a physical stance, but had gotten further ahead from a skills point of view, something which benefited Comer.
The Puke Interview: Damien Comer
The Galway star joins Lee on the show:
- Putting injury nightmare in the past - Getting over the heartbreak of last year's All-Ireland defeat - Not making Hogan School team or Galway minors
- Why scouting could be better than development squads pic.twitter.com/UPC9rJdZS1
— Lee Costello (@LeeCostelloGAA) April 18, 2025
“I was always a corner back or centre back when I was younger, and when I didn’t grow for a while, I was back into the corner, I was always fairly good in the air even though I was small jumping wise, and then once you hit your growth spurt, it helps you physically.
“You are better able to protect yourself, better able to break tackles, and better able to stand up for yourself - I do think it is that competitive edge when you’re smaller, the small man mindset will help you.
“You will still have that when you’re bigger in stature and bigger in size, where I don’t know if you have that when you're big at a young age, the easier you get stuff, then you’ll always expect to get it that little bit easier.
“I seen it loads of times in my age group when I was growing up, and I see it even though with young lads who are way taller than me, and they might only be first year or second year, but will they still have that same edge over people when it gets to junior football in school, probably not, so it’s important that they go after schools more than the smaller ones.”
You can listen to the full interview with Damien Comer for free on The Puke Football Podcast right here: The Puke Interview: Damien Comer
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