From ball alley to ball park: Justin brings the basics to the big stage
MONDAY morning in the oven that is the Rochestown College ball alley. In one corner Justin McCarthy, Waterford manager, hurling fanatic and on-off inhabitant of this same ball alley for 50-odd years.
In the other corner this scribe, on his first visit. Sweating nervously.
“I’m going to serve,” says Justin. “Try to get it back.”
He drives the bright yellow racquetball into one corner and it ricochets between the three open walls before nicking one corner and flying out.
Your correspondent has moved maybe six inches trying to anticipate the flight of the ball. Six inches the wrong way, of course.
“Right,” says Justin. “Try this one.”
A long morning ahead.
It’s wrong to call McCarthy a hurling lifer. That suggests imprisonment, and the Corkman’s devotion to the small ball has meant freedom, not captivity.
“I often say that hurling hasn’t been fully explored yet,” he says.
“The problem now is that people don’t have time — everything’s programmed, you have to plan sessions and so on. To become a star player you have to do a lot of work on your own — you have to be critical of your game as well, what’s right and what’s wrong, what you can improve.
“Before people weren’t willing to do that. I think hurlers are worse than footballers in that they don’t talk about the game as much, they’re inclined to say ‘ah, I was lucky’ when everyone can improve in so many areas. I’d call the ball alley here a place for development — you can develop your wristwork, your timing, your judgement, your footwork, your anticipation — your general endurance for hurling.
“If someone asked me how to bring on hurling, I’d advise them to put alleys like this in every division, and hold tournaments in them. I’d have them without a back wall, because you’d have more running to do.”
McCarthy has brought some of Ireland’s best hurlers to this ball alley for 40 years — with the blessing of the Capuchin Fathers who own it — and he sets them all the same initial challenge: hit the ball off the far wall six times in a row, returning it each time on one hop. They all say no problem; they all fail.
“They’ll do it after a while,” he says. “They’ll go up to 12 in a row or whatever, but that’s only when they start watching and judging the ball as it’s coming to them.”
Your correspondent fancies his chances with the challenge (it’s very hot, after all; dehydration may be an issue) and takes the ball. He manages two in a row.
“As the ball comes back you’ve to stare at it,” says McCarthy. “When you get into a pattern it comes back fairly consistently, that’s the consistency I’m talking about.
“Some players are more talented than others, obviously — you’ll see a 12-year-old play and say: ‘He has beautiful hands.’ What we’re talking about is his wristwork and his timing. Hurlers have to have that, but if they haven’t got it, can they develop it?
“The answer is yes, but you need an area to develop it, an area where you have the ball coming back to you. You can develop it to an extent pucking around with another player, but here it’s quicker. You can be found out here — if you’re not moving into the ball or taking your eye off it, you’ll be found out. You have to get cute in here, to think ahead at speed.
“That first serve that went past you? Eight out of 10 times it’ll come to that corner, and you won’t know whether it’ll hit the very corner or not. When I brought players down here what I found was they were guessing, and eventually they’d actually wait behind the wall for the ball.”
So much for work in miniature. What does the Waterford coach think of the current state of the game?
“I think there are too many people knocking hurling. There are too many past players getting on the bandwagon, looking for the ideal exhibition every Sunday. Teams go out to play as well as they can. There’s too much doom and gloom about hurling: we should be more positive and bring it with us; maybe a few fellas need to get up off their asses and help teams and clubs and counties rather than having their own agenda.
“You need bodies on the ground, too. You need that more than people behind desks talking about it, but that’s what takes time. If I didn’t have the time I couldn’t do it, so I have to make time to do it.
“Hurling’s part of my life and I’ve never fallen out with it; I’ve never said to myself: ‘I’m sick of hurling, I’ll go off and play golf.’ You must have a grá for it to help people along.”
The teaching instinct reawakens when we’re playing the ball across the alley.
“See, here’s something else. As the ball is coming back and forth, a fella is inclined to hold his hurley with the bas down. Then, when the ball comes, he has to bring his hurley up and down again to play it, whether it’s to pull or pick it.
“If you have the hurley held up, up all the time, it’s better because you’re ready for the ball, you don’t have two movements to make. See? It’s easier.”
McCarthy is 61. That makes it a handy half-century he’s been coming to the ball alley and entering his hurling mode.
“What happened during the day, what happened last night, what’ll happen in three hours — I’m in hurling mode and nothing else matters. I’m tuned into it and exhilarated with it.
“You have to balance out your life — I love gardening, and photography, and going out over the fields with the dog — but when it comes to hurling, nothing else counts. A fella might say when we finish training in Waterford that I’ve a long spin home, but I’m so tuned into it I’m on a high.”
It’s his fifth year in Waterford. He always felt the Gentle County would have to win something fairly fast, and they did, snapping up two Munster titles in four years. Tomorrow is another big appointment. Tipperary in Croke Park. Broadway.
“I love those days. This is the big stage for the game, and you have to be prepared for it, to get the team ready, but it’s the place to be. I’ve trained junior teams and I got a huge buzz down in Ballygarvan and Ballymartle, but for the ultimate buzz the intercounty stage is the place to be.
“That’s what you look forward to. You have to love hurling with passion, or else forget about it. At this level you can’t dabble in hurling.”
Dabbling? It never crossed my mind.
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