The reluctant rebel
HIS sporting hero? Boxer Roy Jones Jnr. Compulsive viewing? Any time rugby’s All Blacks or the footballers of Brazil are on television. And he means any time.
“Brazil might be playing Peru in the middle of the night and I’d stick with it. They like to do the right things the right way, and they always stick to their principles,” argues Seán Óg Ó hAilpín.
“Every team has their so-called hard men, but there is no cynicism with Brazil. They’re pleasing on the eye and they’re striving for perfection.”
After a season of acclaim and accolades, the Cork hurlers are bedding into the defence of their All-Ireland with a new coach and new captain. The latter will lead by example, not words.
“It’s a struggle being captain in one way, even though I recognise it is a great honour. It’s not really me knocking guys who are not putting it in. Fellas are giving a lot of time as amateurs, and every team-mate is a person, an acquaintance. You don’t want to harm relationships.
“I’m different maybe, I can motivate myself very easily. But other guys respond better when they are pulled aside, and get a bit of a pep talk, maybe a bollicking.”
Ó hAilpín has raised his own bar for 2005 and presumes his Rebel colleagues have the same.
“The ingredients for disaster this year come from last year’s success. But it’s wrong to start the season thinking ‘we have to win the All-Ireland again’ because that will weigh you down. Everyone needs to reach their individual potential again. And there’s room for improvement every season,” he argues.
“I think I’ve improved every year as a hurler. Athletically I was grand, but as a hurler I started off very poorly. I’m better now, but I’ve more work to do hurling-wise.” For instance? “I’ve never scored in the Championship for Cork, whereas there are other half-backs out there who are racking up points. It’s not my first priority, but it would be nice to chip in every now and then.
“But at this level, if you are getting an extra two or three percent every year, that’s gold dust. Nobody is looking for another 20% improvement, just the two or threes. I’ll change a few things from last year just to freshen myself up.”
The hurler of the year is 28 now - “winding down” he reckons - and savours the good days with the likes of Joe Deane and Donal Óg Cusack, Cork colleagues since they were 14. But Ó hAilpín’s fanatical zeal will never carry into management.
“I can tell you now I’ll never go into management in any serious way. That would kill someone like me. If I don’t see the same commitment from a group of players that I would have put in myself, I would absolutely lose it. A fella out on the town before a big game? Nah, wouldn’t have the patience for that.” The work ethic comes from his parents. “Dad is the kind who never dishes out too many compliments. I remember at under age, he’d pick you up after a match and say ‘not one of your best days.’ He knew our ability, and what annoyed him was when we wasted it. Some days coming home in the car, it was hard to take. With me the eldest, I was able to bite my tongue, but with the younger brothers, there were occasions when people threatened to walk home.”
Not that Seán Óg needed debriefing. He knew. “That’s what upset me so much after the 2003 All-Ireland final against Kilkenny. I had a lot of sleepless nights after that. I was very annoyed with my own performance. We had a lot of new guys but instead of the experienced heads helping them out, we were found wanting and the likes of Setanta and Niall McCarthy were carrying the fight. That killed me and I really wanted another crack at Kilkenny.”
And Henry Sheflin? “I had a gut feeling I’d be on him. He got the upper hand on me in 2003, and I felt they were looking for that from him again. I was hoping to be marking him. I always think of Lennox Lewis with these situations - a good fighter, but there’s always that question mark whether he beat anyone in their prime. If you do it against the best, you’ve earned your stripes.”
It was the physiotherapist to the stars, Gerard Hartmann who offered the startling perspective that Seán Óg was a physical match for the Olympic athletes he tends. While Ó hAilpín likes to put his prowess down to genes, religious trips to the gym are no encumbrance. And like most things, he prefers to train alone.
“I get more work done on my own. I hop out of the car and if I don’t get x, y and z done, I’ll go home pissed off. In some gyms, there’ are too many distractions. People mean well, but after an hour you’ve got nothing done. People think you’re there for the chat.”
HE laughs about the moment now, because he should have known better. Donal O’Grady had coached Seán Óg at North Mon, and Ó hAilpín knew he was a stickler for punctuality. “We’re training up in the old Mon field, near St Vincent’s, and his first session was called for 11am. Of course, I stroll in at ten past, all chirpy, long-time-no-see-Donal kind of thing. Then he lays into me, really lays in. ‘If I call training for 11, I want you here at quarter to.’ I was like a red tomato togging off because he had taught me and I should have known. You toe the line with him, he’s with you 100%, but if you stray offside, forget about it. Any session after that, I was third or fourth into the dressing room.”
Ó hAilpín’s already reflecting nostalgically on O’Grady’s two years in charge. “He’s a huge loss, and that’s no reflection on John (Allen). He’s an unbelievable man, he took it to another level. He’d sit down with every player and go through video clips and he’d walk you through it in slow motion. That was right up my street. When I look back now, I was making the same mistakes, the same bad habits. Once he identified them, it just cut down my scope for error.”
As captain this season, the new coach will confer with Seán Óg on certain things, but already John Allen has shown he won’t be the ‘soft touch’ some suspected.
“Sunday’s game in Wexford was a real eye-opener for us, because what we got was the character test I had expected from Limerick. As champions, you’re a scalp, and we knew it was going to be a battle down in Wexford. If I’m beaten to a ball or Diarmuid (O’Sullivan) is blocked, there’s an extra edge to the roar from the crowd. But that’s good.”
Ó hAilpín and Cusack were the last two players to leave the dressing room on Sunday and they joined in an old refrain. Will we be still involved in two years’ time? “Careers are getting shorter, things are tightening up work-wise. I still think there will come a time when the games will go semi-pro. It won’t be in my time, but I can see a situation like the eircom League in soccer where guys still have a job but they get a few bob a week. I’d be all for that.”
He accepts there’s “a perception” out there that the successful strike threat by the Cork hurlers in 2003 only served to increase their militancy, evidenced by their refusal to co-operate with an independent DVD production on last year’s Championship.
“It’s coming back to me a lot, that we have overstepped the mark. But the man on the street only sees 15 guys on the pitch in July. They don’t realise the sacrifices at this time of the year. All we want is the best chance of competing at this level.”
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