Hiney jumping from frying pan into the fire

IF there is one man who can identify with Diarmuid O’Sullivan’s decision this year to pull the plug on his Cork inter-county career, it’s Dublin’s Stephen Hiney.

Hiney is a rock-like figure, ticking all the full back boxes. The problem though is that in his heart, Hiney is a player who yearns for open space where he’d have more freedom to really express himself.

Like Cork’s erstwhile Rock, Hiney has never been confined to the edge of the square with his club, and this year, having served his time with his county, he has been given his release by new manager Anthony Daly.

“Tomo Brady is the man for full back,” he points out. “He is having a savage season there at the moment. I prefer to be as far out the field as possible – usually with the club I would have been half-back or midfield. Even with Dublin that was the only time I had played in the full-back line – I wouldn’t be a huge fan of it myself.”

So, he can understand the decision of the Rock from Cloyne to call it a day? “Ah, he wanted a bit of freedom and to come out the pitch a bit. He was probably typecast as your definition of a full back.” Just as Hiney himself was, last year? “No, no!” he protests, “Those people weren’t looking with their glasses on!”

Anyway, Hiney’s reward for his decision to take his place on the wing? On Sunday, in the Leinster SHC final against Kilkenny in Croke Park, he will have a choice of opponent – Eoin Larkin, hurler-of-the-year, or Henry Shefflin, the King.

“I don’t know who you would choose there!” he laughs. “Certainly Eoin Larkin is in absolutely sparkling form at the moment. He was deserving of hurler-of-the-year last year because he is absolutely flying. You saw in the game against Galway the last day, he really stood out at the end of the game, he maybe pulled Kilkenny through. But if you are going to be playing hurling you want to be marking the best. Henry Shefflin has been around for so long now it is hard to know who you would want to be marking there!”

Regardless, Hiney faces an immense challenge, the first element of which is to convince himself that these guys are not, in fact, invincible.

“Kilkenny are the team out there, they are the team you have to pit yourself against to see how far you are progressing. Maybe that’s what we need to do – we need to really go out and give it to them and see how far Dublin has progressed. We won’t know until afterwards.”

It’s a lot easier said than done. Over the last three and a half years, during which they’ve been unbeaten in championship hurling, Kilkenny have crushed some very good teams. Dublin, meanwhile, are a much better outfit than many give them credit for. They beat Cork, Galway and Waterford in the league, drew with Clare, ran Kilkenny, Tipperary and Limerick close, and in each of those games they looked solid and controlled.

All of this marks progress from last year, when they could have, and perhaps should have, beaten Cork in the qualifiers.

“But we didn’t,” Hiney points out. “That was maybe a problem we had the last few years, that we couldn’t grind out a result. This year we have. Even in our first game against Antrim, we weren’t playing particularly well and yet we ended up grinding out a 10-point victory without playing out of our skins. That is the difference this year – we are getting results.”

A difference brought about by Anthony Daly? “He has definitely brought something new to the whole squad, though it’s hard to put into words. There is a lot more belief in the team, great camaraderie between the players. We also got a lot of young players in this year, lads starting who weren’t even featuring last year – David Treacy, Liam Rushe, Shane Durkan; there is certainly a lot of youth that has come through and they’re playing unbelievable hurling.”

Football of course is still number one in Dublin, but there has always been a sizeable core hurling support in the capital city; a win here, even a big performance, and who knows what might happen next?

“Down in Nowlan Park, for the Wexford game, there was a huge support for Dublin. If we got more good results I think the public would really row in behind us. With the footballers being so successful over the last while in Leinster it deserves to be the glamour sport – they have produced the goods. If we were able to produce a few more big wins and maybe take a few more scalps then I believe the public would row in behind us.”