Mullane gets forward-thinking

WATERFORD hurler John Mullane wants to put the memories of the past 12 months behind him and to concentrate on a return to winning ways.

Mullane endured Croke Park heartache in two All-Ireland finals with his county and his club, De La Salle, but is now desperate to set the record straight. However he admits that Kilkenny still remain ahead of the pack in the battle for championship honours.

“It’s been a long year. Mentally, it’s awful hard to get your head around it again, to get focused for the championship,” said Mullane in Dublin yesterday at the launch of the GPA summer camps.

“It’s more in the head than anything else, it just drains you. The Portumna boys came back and played with Galway soon after the club final, but we were after having a long year.

“We were playing right up to September and (with De La Salle) the whole way through the winter. We had no break at all.”

Reflecting on those two defeats, he says they were unfortunate in meeting “probably the greatest inter-county team ever” in Kilkenny and, in the case of Portumna, a team which may yet prove to be one of the greatest club sides.

And, with Kilkenny back in the spotlight on Sunday against Tipperary in the NHL final in Semple Stadium, Mullane expects them to be just as formidable a challenge for every county this season.

“It’s hard to look beyond them. There’s just no letting up,” he said. “They seem to be away ahead of the pack at the moment — and the pack have to do that extra bit to try and compete with them.”

He added: “Kilkenny try to ‘bury’ teams in the first 35 minutes and that’s what they have been doing. It’s all about staying with them for 45 or 50 minutes and see where the game can go from there.”

Waterford face a particular challenge, he agrees, if they are to succeed in proving that they are a better team than they looked coming off the field in the All-Ireland final.

“The scoreline didn’t do us justice last year for what we achieved over the last couple of years. Probably more than anything else, that is what’s going to drive us on this year — to come out fighting and prove we are a good team and that the scoreline doesn’t reflect the real Waterford.” ! While expecting a big build-up to their Munster semi-final meeting with the Justin McCarthy-managed Limerick, he feels that there may not be the same level of hype because of the fact that the counties met recently in the league.

“For all that has gone on over last year with Justin (as the former Waterford coach), there is a game there to be won. The managers will take the back seat that day. It will be just all about all the players on the field, trying to get back to the Munster final. They are going to be tough and under Justin, their hurling is going to be 100%. They could be a team to watch for the summer — but hopefully not on June 14.”

Meanwhile the GPA have plans to organise their summer camps on a nationwide basis from next year, depending on the success of their Halifax-sponsored Gaelic Performance promotions this year in Dublin, Wexford, Galway and Monaghan, which have been extended to incorporate hurling.

The camps will cater for boys and girls between the ages of 12 and 16 and coordinator Dermot McArdle stressed at their launch in UCD yesterday that they are not in competition with the GAA’s official VHI Cúl camps.

“There is no conflict,’’ said McArdle, a member of the Monaghan team which lost Sunday’s Division 2 NFL final to Cork. “The Cúl camps are aimed at 7-13 year-olds, that’s the main difference. Our camps are more ‘high-end’ content, whereas the Cúl camps are skill-based and rightly so. We provide kids with a little bit more, focusing on nutrition and hydration, speed development, strength and conditioning. The aim is to promote best practices in these areas.

“If there is an appetite for the camps, which I think there will be, we’ll roll them out across the country next year.

“I founded the camps in 2005 and I have always had the vision to make them available to everybody. This, to me, is the best solution.’’ Events at the camps will be condensed into two days and children will be coached by fully-qualified and experienced GAA coaches, assisted by some of the leading players in the country who are designated “ambassadors” for the scheme. They include Tyrone star Sean Cavanagh, former All-Ireland captain Peter Canavan, John Mullane, Bernard Brogan, Tony Griffin and Marty McGrath. To date, over 750 children have attended the camps.