Cahill plots to upset native county
Tuesdays aren't too bad. For long stretches, it is just himself, the open road and his thoughts on Antrim hurling. He can make it from Tipperary to Belfast in four hours on the really quiet days.
In hurling terms, the distance between the two may be even greater. Dinny Cahill will find out on Sunday, as he takes on his native county in the
All-Ireland quarter-final. How did this come about? Well, a failure to reach the Ulster final last year, for the first time in 93 years, suggested Antrim hurling had reached crisis point. Drastic measures were taken. Dinny Cahill picked up his phone one day and it was a lilting Belfast voice wondering how would he feel about becoming the new manager of Antrim. A few months down the track, they were Ulster champions again.
That was part of the script. A date with Tipperary in the midst of summer wasn't. Cahill gazes ahead to Croker and sees nothing but familar faces he nurtured through minor and under-21 teams. But such familiarity does not make his life any the easier.
"It will be a tough enough day," Cahill agrees. "I was just looking at the team Tipp played against Offaly, and I think I knew all but five of them from working with them at underage level. I have become quite friendly with most of that team. But, I am training a side to win an All-Ireland quarter-final. I am not training a team to beat Tipperary and regardless of what happens on Sunday, I hope I don't lose any friends in Tipperary." He travelled the long distances with the enthusaism he displays when engaged in hurling talk. And his players have responded. "I knew if I was approaching this half-hearted, that would rub off on the players. So, I travel up every Tuesday, come back Wednesday morning, go back on Friday afternoon, coming back early on Monday morning." It is a tight schedule, but one which has worked. The sessions he couldn't make, Cahill always left a training plan which Paul Murphy implemented.
"Was I apprehensive taking this job? Not at all. When you are working with the cream of hurling talent in a county, and they are doing the right things, a well prepared team will always do well. The attitude is right, and that was a big thing with these players to get the attitude right. We have a few injuries, but overall, we are reasonably confident of going to Croke Park and giving a good account of ourselves." Perceptions have changed along the way. Those initial sessions weren't to his taste. All that travelling up the country and the sight which greeted him wouldn't have filled the most optimistic heart with hope. The panel needed culling. "To be honest, I thought they could do better," Cahill remembers of those first evenings. "There were a lot of faults in the game and I was coming to the panel completely new. I only knew one player, so in a way, that made my job easier. Some players who were making dreadful mistakes were culled, and others who I saw things that could be improved upon were kept."
Cahill makes the analogy of taking over Tipperary minors a few years ago, arriving with a clean page. In Tipp, there was over 300 hurlers he had to pare down to 25, there wasn't quite so many in the Glens, but they were equally keen to impress. "There was a lot of flaws that had to be worked on, there were aspects of the game which needed developing. The major flaw was probably the hand passing, that was being completely over done. A hand pass is supposed to be used in hurling to get yourself out of trouble or set up someone in a scoring position, it was never meant to be used to build a move from one end of the pitch to the other. So, either the hand passing went or I did," he recalls with a laugh.
Fortunately, the Antrim hurlers retained the services of their manager. By April, Cahill had an idea of the team he wanted to mould, but knew Ulster sides' biggest failing for their annual day out in Croker every year was fitness. Derry's performance against Offaly two years ago was the best Ulster display since Antrim's ground breaking victory in 1989, but in the end, it came down to fitness.
This Antrim side have more hurlers of genuine talent. However, to mount any sort of challenge on the big day, Cahill realised their bodies had to be tuned properly. In April, fitness was the key issue. "For that month, we fitness trained five nights a week. It was a big thing with Ulster teams, just competing with the Derrys and Downs, all due respect to them, they were never really exposed to the pace of hurling you see from the strongest teams down south.
"It wasn't so much a fitness question, as developing the pace of hurling. So, that once we came up against the stronger counties, we wouldn't be found wanting in the pace."
Developing the swiftest pace hasn't been the easiest task. After all, as everyone involved in Ulster hurling painfully points out, the biggest problem facing Ulster sides is one of geography.
"Antrim is five hours away from a really good challenge game and coming into a championship, that is what every team needs. That's why it's important we are involved in the top section of the league, but even that gives them a false impression of what hurling at the top is like, because it's played at the wrong time of the year, the ground is slow, the hurling is slow, and teams are trying out new players."
He is leaving nothing to chance in his preparations. They are even going for a walkabout on the new sod this evening. Cahill underlines that as important as any other preparation.
It has been 13 years now since Antrim hurlers shocked Offaly and the country by reaching an All-Ireland final. Images of those golden days, like the massive frame of the curly-haired Niall Patterson in goals and the mercurial Sambo McNaughton catching everything, are fading fast. It was Nicky English who annihilated them in the final. Now, there's a slim chance of revenge.
