Flynn fired up by young Gunners

FOUR YEARS had passed since Ballygunner won a county senior hurling title in Waterford. The way Paul Flynn sees it, their success this season was based on an influx of youth.

“It was funny, I wouldn’t say the older lads had had enough of it, but if we’d never gotten back there, we’d already done it. The year Ballyduff won we’d have felt was a year we left slip, while with De La Salle we weren’t even involved.

“We won it last in 2005 and players come and go, but this year we’ve had an injection of five or six young players – really good young players – and that’s been the difference between this season and previous years.

“The likes of Paudie and Philip O’Mahony and Brian O’Sullivan, Shane Walsh, they’re top class young players.”

Flynn is keen to give the new lads credit: “They’ve won two Harty Cups, All-Ireland colleges, so they’re at a level we wouldn’t have been at when we were that age. And you can see that when they play, they’ll try things and they’re used to winning things – with the club as well – so they’re used to coming out on top.”

So is their coach. Putting Cork hurling legend Ger Cunningham in charge has introduced top coaching and calmness on the sideline.

“There’s a mixture of both of those, definitely, but also his attitude is definitely ‘if you’re playing well enough you’ll be playing’. If you look at all our games so far there have been at least two changes from game to game because lads have come on and done well as subs.

“In previous years that wouldn’t have happened, either because we didn’t have the players, which we do now, or because it just wouldn’t have been done.”

Does it help that he’s an outsider? “Absolutely – that’s the big advantage. He can make changes freely because he doesn’t have any baggage with anybody.”

Their opponents tomorrow, Newtownshandrum, must have the most widely recognised tactical approach in hurling – a running and support game synonymous with the north Cork club.

“Do we have a plan for that?” says Flynn “I don’t know if you use the Playstation attitude, where you take the nearest player, but my own thoughts on that kind of thing is that if you overdo the planning you can get bogged down in those plans.

“If we play well ourselves and control the ball and use the ball well when we have it, we might be able to force them into doing what they’re not used to doing. But who knows – conditions are going to have a big bearing, after the last couple of weeks if it’s raining heavily on Sunday that’ll affect things hugely.

“And for all the planning, a fella could just get the right ball on Sunday and run riot. In fairness to Newtown, they’re all very comfortable on the ball, they have a good first touch and their movement is excellent off the ball.

“It takes a brave team to play hurling the way they do and they’ve got phenomenal results from it.”

Flynn retired from intercounty hurling after last year’s All-Ireland hurling final. He sees a dividend in the amount of time he has for the club.

“I wouldn’t be able for intercounty hurling now, so that’s easy. We’ve been away from the club for the last ten or twelve years with Waterford, particularly with the back door increasing the number of games, so it’s nice to be back with the club and the people around the club.

“It’s a great atmosphere and I missed that for the last few years.

It was hard at times during the summer, with lads away playing minor and U21 with Waterford you might have only six or seven, but that’s the other side of it, you just get on with it.

“Newtown are the same, they had a long run at it with Cork going out early. And that helps because you know who’ll hit a line ball well and so on, you know your own team-mates better.

“For me I couldn’t train to intercounty level with my ankle anyway, so I’m happy enough with my decision. I gave up when I wanted to give up; I’m 34 and I had enough done, and it was coming to a time when I didn’t want to worry if I was playing or not. You’d be constantly thinking about it, and that’d be taking up energy from other areas of your life.”

There are other areas now, of course. Flynn is a Sunday Game pundit (“You’d hear the odd, ‘what’s your opinion on that’ in the dressing-room. But it is what it is, plenty of people have opinions.”).

So, his opinion on tomorrow’s game? “The bookies have their minds made up – I hope our young fellas enjoy it. It’ll be an experience from them and hopefully they’ll learn from it – myself, Fergal (Hartley), Andy (Moloney) and Alan (Kirwan) will be trying to help them along.

“Hopefully it’ll be a good game and it’s not a bad day so both teams can play as well as they can play. If we’re ahead at the end of 60 minutes that’ll do us.”