The league isn’t something just to get through
Over the winter, when John Mullane was asked to turn his thoughts to the summer and who he fancied for the 2015 All Ireland,
he predicted the winner would emerge from the first-round Munster championship clash of Limerick and Clare. As in whoever lost
would win the All Ireland. Even the provincial championship he so coveted and adorned as a player now had limited value in his
eyes. At least when they were taking a longer view.
We could see his logic. Kilkenny had perhaps lost a player too many and Galway, Dublin and Wexford would still be a few
players short. Clare and Limerick are two teams approaching the prime of their life cycle. They should be ready to win it all,
just not by winning everything or every game. The last time a side won the preliminary round of Munster and went all the way
through their province to win an All Ireland was 1966. Better to lose that first day out rather than win and have too much
momentum for a rusty Tipp in the semi-final and too much for either Cork or Waterford in a Munster final and win the bloody
thing against your better judgement.
If that’s what Mullane thinks about the importance of a summer’s day that helped sustain our past winter — May 24, Thurles,
two neighbouring counties on a hot day and dry sod, what more do you want? — then what about the relevance of games like this
weekend’s when managers don woolly hats to help brave the cold and rain rather than baseball caps to shield out the sun?
Thankfully hurling doesn’t work that way. Teams, players and managers actively involved don’t think that way. For one, lose on
May 24 and there’s a 50% chance your first qualifier will be against the loser of the May 31 clash of Galway and Dublin. If it
is, there’s a 50%t chance that you’ll be playing them away. In 2013 Tipp’s summer was buried in Nowlan Park. In 2014 Clare’s
season was similarly put to rest in Wexford Park. The backdoor has recently proved to be a graveyard as much as a godsend for
past or potential champions.
More than that, you’re always playing and striving for something right now. The league isn’t something just to get through. If
you’re TJ Ryan, it’s something to get out of, at least when it’s Division 1B, which makes Waterford this Saturday in the
Gaelic Grounds a date circled in red. If you’re Ger Cunningham, you’re not wishing it was already May 31 but wanting to see if
Liam Rushe is a genuine full-forward option — or rather full-forward is a genuine option for Liam Rushe — for May 31, gauging
by how he goes on big tests like this Saturday against Tipperary.
Eamon O’Shea will be just as mindful of what’s at stake. In his first league game over Tipperary, his team were blitzed for 14
consecutive points down in Páirc Uí Rinn. While Tipp would scramble enough to make that year’s league final, he’ll admit he
was fire-fighting from that day one and never put it out.
In year two, he’d see Tipp start and show their own fire. When asked on the eve of the All-Ireland final when Tipp’s fortunes
turned, he pointed to a second half against Galway. Not the championship game in Thurles. Rather the league game in Salthill
when Tipp came from nine down at half-time to lose by only three. It was Tipp’s third consecutive defeat but how they
responded facing into the wind and their backs to the wall convinced O’Shea that they could win big later on.
Paudie Maher was central to that revival when switched to full-back. For O’Shea he almost hurled Galway on his own, or at
least put his team on his back to the point they could then hurl some bit themselves. When the two sides met again in the
championship, Maher would be moved outfield again. But Salthill still mattered. It’s where his team got its mojo back and how
a part of O’Shea will always remember Maher.
League games like Saturday night are similarly a chance to seal or boost group morale, a player’s form. Even for automatic
championship starters like a Maher. This week he turned 26. The kid who bolted onto the scene in 2009 with that haircut is now
about halfway through his career, maybe even more.
The UK sport psychologist Dr Brian Hemmings talks about how every athlete is just like any person; all of us have a limited
time. William Shakespeare, 1564-1616. No matter how great you are, you have that dash in the middle. What, he asks, are you
doing with your dash?
Brendan Cummins, championship career 1995-2013, fitted a lot into either side of his. For some hurlers taking to the field
this weekend, it will go a long way towards prolonging or enhancing theirs. For all the talk of All Stars and supposed
indentured slaves that retired too early, forgotten and overlooked are the many more who are retired early, that barely garner
column briefs, not headlines or tributes.
In Dublin and Mayo there are men who have been involved in a couple of recent All-Ireland football finals that are anxiously
wondering whether they’ll survive their management’s imminent cull . Some of them won’t. Like those Mickey Harte recently let
go, the right side of their dash will unwontedly lie the year 2014 or 2015.
Even for a player of Maher’s stature, league games like this weekend’s constitute some of his dash. No need so to fast-forward
even this summer. It’ll come in its own good time. For now the league is the next best thing. It’ll more than do for now.
