No half measures

Those who point to the new phenomenon of blue collar half-forward should remember that Kerry's Liam Hassett has been toiling in that role for almost a decade. Colm O'Connor spoke to him.

LIFE as an elder statesman seems to be suiting Liam Hassett. Though aged 30 and with almost a decade of inter-county football behind him, Hassett looks, and admits to feeling, as good as ever.

His body weight and height have struck a happy medium. The bulges or bumps that seem to preserve of most Irish males of his vintage appear a long way off. Talks of calling it a day seem as distant.

"I am 30 years of age and I would like to be 25," he smiles. "But I feel good. Aoife Ní Mhuírí, Sarah Hobbs and Harry O'Neill are great and they look after the niggles and the pains of old age. I'd have to give credit to them."

Hassett is doing himself a disservice. He re-invented himself time and again since making his debut against Tipperary in 1996.

It hasn't been easy. In the early days Hassett struggled to make his impact in a forward sextet which included the likes of Maurice Fitzgerald and Pa Laide.

In those early days his poor scoring return was the subject of much criticism inside the county. But Laune Rangers' All-Ireland club-winning manager John Evans believes such opinion was short-sighted.

"The purists complained that he was not a fluent point kicker. People didn't seem to realise the worker role that he was fulfilling. I felt that he was the engine room for success of both Laune Rangers and Kerry in those years."

Hassett knows all about being knocked down. Defeat to Kildare wasn't the only story making headlines in Kerry in 1998. The Killorglin brothers were embroiled in a spat with the County Board after brother Mike was denied an All-Ireland medal from 1997. Liam picked up the cup but the sour taste lingered.

Yet Páidi Ó Sé, the man who dropped Mike the week before the Mayo final, cajoled them back. "Páidí was a great manager. He was a great motivator, a guy who lived for the game. I learned a lot of things from the man and I still carry a few of those things into the game. And it is the same with Ogie Moran before and now with Jack - they all brought a lot of new things with them. If you don't learn anything from the manager then you are not listening to the manager. They can see your strengths and weakness."

So what of the positives, what makes Liam Hassett an integral part of the team chasing Cork's 15-year-old record of back-to-back All-Ireland titles?

"I am a team player and I try and give as much for the team," he continued. "I learned when I was younger to try and encourage players and to try and give as much advice as I can. In 1997 I had Maurice Fitzgerald, Eamonn Breen, Stephen Stack and Liam O'Flaherty giving me a hand. That is what I am trying to do now."

Come 2000, Kerry and the Hassetts were back in the big time. Liam was given something of a roving commission in the millennium season. Though dropped against Armagh in the semi-final, he stormed back in the replay and gave a torrid afternoon to Kieran McGeeney.

"I played at lot of my football at half-forward and maybe full-forward in 2000. From moving out to the wing you have to re-invent your game. It is a different game out there. There is a lot more running and you are marking attacking half-backs which means that you are ending up in your own defence a good bit of the time."

But does that lessen your impact? "Our aim as a forward is to attack and to get scores on the board. Forwards are there to score. But when you have an attacking half-back you have to follow him. But scoring should be your first job."

For those who think that "blue collar" and "work horse" are recent inventions, let us direct you to Exhibit A: a video of Liam Hassett's performance in the All-Ireland final replay against Galway five years ago.

"I kicked a few points from centre-forward in the drawn game," he remembers, "but on the second day I was put on Declan Meehan after he had got an early goal. I had a busy day, I was all over the pitch. But I was going well that time and it was great to play well in an All-Ireland final."

Then bang. Another detour on the Hassett football career path as he tore the patella tendon off his knee cap. To compound the pain, it came 15 minutes into his first championship game with St Anne's in Dublin. Maybe it was a sign. "I got it jumping up for a ball when a fellow's heel caught me just under the knee. So I packed my bags and came back down to Kerry soon after that."

Laune Rangers rejoiced. Exhibit B in defence of Hassett's workload comes from his club boss, Evans.

"There is a moment from last year which stands out. We were playing East Kerry in the Championship and were six points down. Then Liam Hassett went to work and pulled us back into the game. I remember in the final minute he was blocking a corner-forward at the end line - moments after being involved at the other end of the field. We went on to beat Dr Crokes and An Ghaeltacht in the semi-final and Liam was a vital player in those games. Lo and behold he was missing for the final against South Kerry and we lost."

Evans is not surprised by Hassett's rise and rise. "When he came on the scene first I said he was a time-bomb waiting to explode. He has such a high work rate. He is a dream to every inside-forward as he does the donkey work supplying the ball inside. When we won the All-Ireland club final he was so strong in that role."

That strength isn't all due to work of Pat Flanagan and Jack O'Connor.

"You have to be mentally strong in this game. People outside of Laune Rangers didn't know how mentally strong he was but Liam was always going out to prove a point. People used talk about the importance of guys like Seamus Moynihan and Darragh Ó Sé and now they include Liam in the same vein."

That knee problem meant Hassett missed most of 2001 before enduring the trilogy of defeats to Meath, Armagh and Tyrone. Those latter losses helped conceive the notion of "puke football" and the conventional wisdom that tomorrow represents some form of redemption for Kerry.

"We are going to treat Tyrone as Tyrone," he says matter-of-factly. "We have played Armagh before but as far as I am concerned Tyrone play a different brand of football to Armagh. If they can deal with what we have to throw at them, so be it." Then there is the Tyrone season - or should that read campaign. Kerry's five games seem like a summer stroll when compared to a Himalayan trek.

"Tyrone have been in tight games and they know how to keep going and we know that if we are not playing into the 71st minute then we won't win the All-Ireland. Look at 1982 when Offaly beat Kerry with a last minute goal."

In Kerry, they'd prefer not.