Codebreaker

Galway’s Alan Kerins tried hard to make the GAA’s dual mandate work, but it almost drove him to distraction. His decision to focus on hurling is a bonus for Conor Hayes — and for the county’s bid to claim Sunday’s Allianz Hurling League final. Diarmuid O’Flynn reports.

A FEW days after the Allianz Football League final, a few days before its hurling equivalent, Galway involved in both, let’s address the thorny issue of the dual player.

Step up, Alan Kerins.

Three years ago, Galway reached the All-Ireland hurling and football finals and Kerins came within a whisker of emulating the unique on-field double achievement of Cork’s Teddy McCarthy in 1990. Played the full game in the hurling, as Galway went down by three points to Tipperary, collected a medal in the football in a convincing defeat of Meath, coming on as a late sub. Times have changed for the Clarinbridge dual star, however. This year, he has seen no football action whatsoever, missed out on the opportunity to double up on the Hurling League medal won with Galway in 2000. Nothing to do with form, everything to do with choice.

Kerins has opted out, chosen one code above another. In his case, gone back to his first love, hurling. A difficult decision but one which, according to those close to him, has paid off. Hurler-cum-manager cum-journalist, John McIntyre commented: “I can’t offer any opinion yet on the club front, but at county level, you can see there’s a vitality about him again on the hurling field, his touch is coming back, though he’ll probably feel he never lost it. He’s just more tuned in to the hurling set-up at this stage, he’s not being pulled in several different directions.

“There was a lot of controversy about it, going back to when Noel Lane was hurling manager, there was pressure there. He was trying to play with Galway footballers and Galway hurlers, and we were obviously putting pressure on him as well to make himself available for Clarinbridge.

“I had my own difficulties with John O’Mahony, the Galway football manager, I was very up front about it, I wrote about it. I felt O’Mahony was immune to the club responsibilities of his players, that he was operating in a vacuum with his team. Maybe that’s the way modern inter-county management has gone, everything else comes second, and a poor second at that.

“All that stuff left its legacy on everyone, a difficult legacy for Alan particularly. Mentally it was wearisome for him, but maybe he had to find that out for himself. Everybody was advising him and guiding him, trying to be his best friend, telling him what he should be doing, what he shouldn’t be doing, but ultimately he had to find it out for himself, and I think he has.”

Under normal circumstances, Kerins is an outgoing, upbeat, confident character, very typical of the modern Irish professional.

A well-rounded individual, gifted natural athlete, nurtured and encouraged by generous and supportive parents, qualified physiotherapist, he is one of those self-assured guys who knows his worth, his ability, his potential, doesn’t fake modesty.

Without an awful lot of time to practice, he still manages to play competitive golf off a handicap of seven; without having had the benefit of a full-time football upbringing (Clarinbridge is not exactly a powerhouse in Galway), he still managed to be one of the frontline forwards in a Galway team positively bristling with scoring threat.

As for his ability in hurling, his first sport, let McIntyre paint the picture. “I remember in the All-Ireland club semi-final win against Ballygunner (2002), we only scored one goal that day but people from my own parish in Lorrha who were at the game were saying afterwards, that was one of the few times they ever saw a hurling goalkeeper being sent the wrong way. It’s not something you expect to see. He had so much confidence he actually left the Ballygunner keeper static, on the goal-line. It takes an exceptional player to have that level of vision, and that level of confidence, to even attempt something like that.

“In that same game, we had to switch Alan back to wing-back, after we were reduced to 14 men; he played there like someone who had been in the position all his life. Alan can hurl anywhere; his best position, at club level anyway, is probably wing-forward, but if he was getting the right supply of ball he could destroy a team at full or corner-forward. When he’s at his peak, he’s almost un-hurlable.”

All that ability then, it’s easy to see how Alan Kerins was seen as a valuable member of both the Galway senior football and hurling squads.

Outstanding pace, dedicated trainer, in the right circumstances (and both John O’Mahony and Conor Hayes, football and hurling manager, were prepared to accommodate him) he could easily have carried on playing both codes for several years more. Why then, has he chosen to drop football?

“I’m enjoying it now, but I wasn’t, for a while. I went away in Australia, hadn’t the hunger or the drive or the determination to go fighting everyone again. And it was a fight; no matter how everyone tried to make it work, it was a struggle. Two or three years with it, it took its toll. First year wasn’t too bad, two All-Ireland finals, second year it really started, the controversy (with Noel Lane, then hurling manager), that took a lot out of me, and last year, I had all the injuries.

“John O’Mahony was brilliant to me, he was very flexible, I wasn’t as heavily involved with the footballers as before, and Conor was very good too about it. But I was out for ten weeks, came back only as a sub against Clare, then against Tipperary.

“I was pulled apart, big-time,” and he stops, sighs. “Just mentally more than anything, you’re drained. Ringing managers, where am I going tonight, who am I training with? Where am I at the weekend?

“Often you’re wondering how do I get out of this, how do I get out of that, that kind of shite. It’s lovely now to have just one thing on your mind, no distraction. Physically I could do it, the body is able, plenty fit enough; it’s mental. No matter how strong you are, everyone else is telling you, you can’t do it, everyone else is saying how the hell do you do it, it can’t be done. That seeps in,” and he points to his head; “you shouldn’t let it, but it’s impossible to stop. You get the impression people don’t WANT you do to it, to succeed. Eventually it gets to you.”

Decision made then, hurling only, and Alan agrees with John McIntyre, there is a difference, he is definitely playing much nearer his full potential. “I suppose I am, single focus.” Good news for Galway hurling fans, bad news however for the rest, for Waterford in particular, as the Decies go in search this Sunday of their first National Hurling League title in over 40 years.

It is absolute justice that the two teams above all others who went all out to reach the League final have done so. Galway never make any secret of their desire to go as far as possible in the League, every year; with nothing like the Munster or Leinster championship to keep them toned in the early summer months, they need those League play-offs.

Waterford on the other hand, though they face the prospect of a first-round Munster championship battle against Clare on Sunday week, May 16th, a week after the League final, just want a national title, any national title.

Their last All-Ireland championship success was 1959, last National League in 1963; manager Justin McCarthy made the call, a brave call, the correct call. Go for the League, let the championship chips fall where they may (and let no-one write them off against Clare, either, regardless of the League final result).

The two sides have already met in this year’s League in Walsh Park, with Waterford on the end of a 5-13 to 1-14 hammering. But Kerins isn’t fooled by that. “Waterford were missing Ken McGrath, Eoin Kelly, they had three or four really young backs. They’d had a young team out against Dublin the week before, I think, won that one, stuck with those, but things went against them on the day. We got off to a good start, got a couple of goals again early in the second half, and that really killed it off. They’ll be a totally different proposition this week; Ken McGrath in the half-back line, Tony Browne on the wing, John Mullane, Paul Flynn, flying it up front, and on their day those two guys can beat you on their own.

“They have Eoin Kelly also up there, Shanahan, Moloney, two big ball-winners, Dave Bennett playing very well in midfield, Micheál Walsh, a very good player. Feeney is back in the full-back line, very solid.

“The League is bigger now than it used to be, remember the winners of the All-Ireland championship for the last three years have also won the National League. The same with Tyrone in the football, last year. Big teams are taking it more seriously now, look at Clare against Cork, they wanted to go for it, and nearly got there. It’s a national title, we want to win it, Waterford are going all out for it; we’ll be up against it, big-time.”

Fully focused then, Galway and Alan Kerins. Focused on one game, focused on one code, and all the better for it. Could well be that there will yet be another dual star who could replicate the achievement of McCarthy, even the achievement of the likes of Offaly star Liam Currams who won hurling and football All-Irelands in different years. Unlikely however, given the recent experience of Alan Kerins, in a climate where both managers were willing to facilitate the player.

The individual demands of both codes, given the increase in training and games, is proving too much of a demand on the individual. A pity.