Aisake reaching for the stars
THEY were hard to miss, the two giants in The Quiet Man in Melbourne.
Setanta and Aisake Ó hAilpín would arrive into the Irish bar not for Foster’s or a fry-up, but for the sizzle of championship games beamed in from Ireland.
“Unless we had a game with Carlton, we’d be there at three or four in the morning,” says Aisake Ó hAilpín, Cork hurling’s new cult hero.
“Although we’d clear out before the drinking started.”
He put down four years with his brother in Australia and isn’t shy about taking you through the detail of his departure.
“I was out of contract and was training away with Collingwood, but when I didn’t get a rookie contract offer from them, I knew that was it. They asked me to stay on and play for their reserves, and if it went well, there was a chance of a contract, but...
“Every day we were over there we’d be talking to Seán Óg, you’d be asking what training is like and so on. We’re a close family anyway.”
Cork footballer Michael Shields fell in with the Ó hAilpíns while playing with Carlton, but he’d come back to Cork. He told Aisake that Conor Counihan had been asking about him.
“If I’d stayed in Australia nothing would have been guaranteed,” says Ó hAilpín. “I’d been there four years already, so... I came home and I trained away with the footballers.
“I played a league game with Na Piarsaigh and the hurlers invited me to training. I said it to Conor and he said ‘it’s not as if you’ve been playing hurling for the last four years, it’d be too hard to play both so take a few days off and have a think about it’. I went training with the hurlers and I loved it.”
Before he’d left, the youngest of the Ó hAilpíns had picked up a senior county championship medal with Na Piarsaigh in hurling. That was his big grá. His football coach understood.
“Conor was great about it — if he had his way he’d have everyone on the panel — and he left it up to me. I’d rather just concentrate on the one but he was very good about it.”
The big youngster doesn’t regret his Australian adventure.
“It was a great lifestyle — it didn’t work out for me but I had the support of Seán Óg and the family when I came back, they were great. Setanta wanted me to stay, obviously, but he said ‘look it’s your life, you’ll have to do what makes you happy’. And he’s doing well over there.
“You get up, train, and if you’re injured you focus on recovery and get yourself right. I’m working here in Champion Sports and trying to get to training after work, whereas in Australia sport is your job. You have every opportunity to become a better player, which is fantastic — they give you balls to bring home to practice with.
“There was one guy there, Barry Mitchell, a trainer, and he worked with me every day I was there, for three years. He developed me and Setanta, and he gave us unbelievable coaching. He took us for one-on-one sessions, tell you stir your soup or coffee with your weak hand to train your mind to use both hands... Denis Pagan was the coach but he was looking after the first team for big games, Barry was the main coach for us with skills.
“When I came back I passed on a few drills to Conor for the football, Obviously it wouldn’t apply as much to the hurling, but still, you’d pick up things like how to use your body under the dropping ball.”
Ó hAilpín saw the new fad for smaller players sweep through the AFL, a fad which has driven recruiting efforts in Ireland.
“I played in the ruck, out in the middle of the field, because of my height. My job was to get the ball out to the smaller fellas to carry the ball.
“With me and Setanta, they were looking for tall fellas, but when Martin Clarke went over he made a real impact, so they turned to smaller players. They feel a taller player needs more time to develop compared to a smaller player, so the smaller lads tend to be cut first.”
Even the tall players need heft, however.
“I went over at 87kg, and the heaviest I got was 102kg, but that went on over three/four years. I put on about 4kg a year — of muscle, not fat!
“That’s helped me since I came back. If I’d marked someone like Paul Curran before I went away he’d have horsed me out of it no problem, but I was able to hold my own physically.”
Ah, that senior championship debut; Ó hAilpín lined out against Tipperary in the last week of May.
“I was a bit nervous, I didn’t know what to expect. I’d been talking to Setanta all week — he was in college with Paul Curran — and he was telling me ‘get the ball into your hand and the rest will follow’.
“Seán Óg and Denis (Walsh) were the same — Denis said ‘go out and play’. I didn’t know what to expect, it’s championship. Looking around the dressing room, though, at the likes of Ben, Jerry, Seán Óg, Curran — I was thinking ‘how can these guys be written off’?”
Ó hAilpín enjoyed the occasion, if not the result — or an apparent mistake by referee Barry Kelly, a free given when the Corkman had lifted the ball fairly. He sets the record straight: “To be fair to Barry, there was a ball before the one I rose, and I went a lot lower for that one.”
Now it’s Offaly. Ó hAilpín is looking forward to the game but he’s equally keen to get his head down and concentrate on improving his skills.
“I’ve a lot to improve on, I know that. I’m only starting.”
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