All-Ireland down to toss of a coin, says Hughes

DEIRDRE HUGHES is one of the most feared attackers in the country. Now in her 14th season as a Tipperary player she has experienced good and bad times.

She won a junior medal in 1992, captained her county to intermediate honours in 1997 and played a huge part in Tipp’s three-in-a-row success during 1999-2001.

However, it is all achieved at a huge cost. Training is reduced to the minimum for fear of further aggravating a back problem that has interfered with her preparations over the last decade.

“It is on-going,” she explains. “It is a physical problem that seemingly I have had since birth, but it started to affect me in the last eight or nine years.

"My vertebrae got pushed forward and that puts pressure on my hamstrings to the extent that they get so tight I have to ease off in training. The situation is monitored on a regular basis to ensure that my vertebrae are not slipping too much.

“It is gradually getting worse. I avoid a lot of the heavy running and use the swimming pool instead. I did a fair bit of swimming earlier in the season to strengthen my legs and get my fitness up.

"I do as much as I can now but cannot do any of the hard slog. I will have to take it year by year. It's all down to the legs - if they stay going so will I.”

Now turned 30, there is huge mileage on the Hughes clock. At the age of three she caught her first hurley and hours of practice was shared with neighbour’s kids - in a house of four boys where some of the most epic battles were played out.

After her 11th birthday she joined Toomevara and that is where her affection for the game developed.

With them she has six senior county championships and one Munster club medal. However, her biggest regret was losing an All-Ireland club final before a huge home attendance in 1995.

Another disappointment was suffered in recent weeks when her club lost the county final after a replay to Drom and Inch.

The focus is presently firmly rooted to Sunday and winning the All-Ireland. However, Deirdre feels that her county have never got the proper respect for emerging as senior stars.

She feels the Kilkennys and the Corks are still regarded as the top teams. Three-in-a-row teams, you'd imagine, should qualify for a Hall of Fame. Why not them?

The record books tell that Dublin, Antrim, Kilkenny and Cork are the four big names in camogie. While the sting from last season’s defeat at the hands of the Rebels still remains, you get a feeling that she has a sort of a fondness for the red and white - a sort of liking and dislike in equal measure.

“I'd have to say they are a fair team and always have been. We would at all times be wary of them and I would bow to them. I have fierce respect for the Cork girls.

"Their forward line is on fire, all of them. Emer Dillon is playing her best camogie ever. Indeed the whole lot of them are doing so well. Our lads will have it all to do to stop them. There is no point in saying otherwise.”

Deirdre is named at corner-forward, though she is likely at some stage to move to the edge of the square where Denise Cronin would be her marker.

They have come face to face in the National League and in the Munster championship. “Denise has been around for a while and knows every trick in the book. She has captained Cork to All-Ireland victory so will not lack in experience. If I am marking her, I will have to be on my toes.”

In their six-point win over the Leesiders in the Munster championship the number 14 recorded an incredible four goals - for the last two she combined with corner forward Eimear McDonnell. “You would never get in for goals like that in an All-Ireland final.

"They had us on the rack in the first half and we got a few lucky shots. We also had the crowd behind us in Portlaoise (played before the hurling qualifier between Tipperary and Laois).

"While it was a great win for us, and our supporters thought we were brilliant, only the All-Ireland that matters at the end of the day.”

She is sceptical about the outcome of this year’s intriguing battle. Over the last few years the results have ebbed and flowed before eventually being deciding by a hop of a ball.

Her career so far has been measured with three pieces of gold. Some of her rivals this Sunday have notched five and six. Reluctant to go back over games she has played in herself, the sales assistant says it is down to a toss of a coin.

For all the tributes to Cork, she still will not fall into the trap of blowing up her own team. Past history doesn't allow either for assumptions.

“Honestly, none of us could pick the team. This is the first year that something like this has happened. Our panel is stronger mainly because a lot of girls impressed with their colleges over the winter and now are staking a claim for first choice positions.

"We have 30 on our squad and each one is an able replacement for whoever starts.

“We started out as a clean sheet with players fighting for their places,” she said. “Nobody is sure anymore. Maybe that is what happened last year - people became too casual.”

Twelve months later and the madness started all over again. But, she wouldn't change it for the world. Despite the grief and aching limbs she is a fighter to the bitter end.