Richmond: Dunloy far from no-hopers
Three times All-Ireland champions in the last four years, going for three-in-a-row, with the likes of the Canning brothers and the Hayes brothers and cousins in their ranks, Portumna are now accepted as the benchmark for all hurling clubs, a powerhouse to rank with any of the great teams that have gone before.
“Yeah, they definitely are,” Paddy acknowledged this week, as he accepted his award as the AIB Provincial club hurler of the championship in Ulster. “They’ve proved it over the last five or six years, they are the club for all teams to catch.
“They’ve got a squad of fantastic players and four or five individuals that are first class, proven through their All-Star record (Ollie Canning with four, Joe Canning with two, Damien Hayes with one). We’re under no illusions that come Sunday we have a challenge to meet, but we’ll get ourselves into the best frame of mind and do our best to go and meet that challenge.”
But how exactly do you approach that challenge? In this, the age of the DVD, of detailed analysis, what do you do – break down the Portumna game piece by piece, find the weakness?
Nothing as complex as that, says Paddy. “We never really sit down and look at them; we know what they’re like, we’ve played them before, we beat them before. We’ll be looking at our own game come Sunday, we’ll not be too worried what they have in mind. We know what they’ll be looking for and what they’ll be going for – we’ll just get ourselves in the right frame of mind.
“We’ll keep an eye on Joe (Canning); we know what kind of player he is and we know how good he is. You can’t really give him a dead ball – sideline or free – from 65m in, or you’re in trouble. But we’ve a lot of good players, a lot of good young players and hopefully on Sunday they can get stuck into them too. There’ll be a game plan, there’ll be a strategy set out, but as of yet I’m not really sure what they are – we’ll know Sunday.”
He has reason enough to be optimistic, Paddy Richmond. He is one of several hurlers with huge inter-county experience on the Dunloy team, and the win over Portumna he refers to, in early 2005 in another All-Ireland semi-final at a time when Portumna were still greenhorns at this level, coming off their first Galway senior title, was still a significant result.
“We showed the way we can hurl that day. We played well, we came out the right end of the result. We have a good club, a good structure, good people in place that get us whatever we need. We’ve been in four All-Ireland finals and when you experience those days, All-Ireland club finals, it’s never that hard to get yourself up and into shape.”
As for his own future at inter-county level, Paddy isn’t certain whether or not he’ll continue, though the appointment of the highly respected Tipperary hurling coach Dinny Cahill – for the second time – as Antrim coach, is proving a temptation.
“I’m not sure just at the minute. It’s good to see Dinny back again, he’ll bring a bit of atmosphere back to the county again, and he has a proven record. In 2002 and 2003, we (Antrim) came very close to causing two upsets in the All-Ireland championship, should have probably caused one.
“Dinny’s coaching and training is first class and he’s got two good men in with him, Bob Thornhill and Gregory O’Kane, who plays for us, so I’d say it’ll be a good set-up this year. I’ve struggled a bit with a bad back injury the last year so I’ll see what way things turn out after the weekend.”
And what way will things turn out?
Can Dunloy buck the odds yet again? “I’m not too sure what it was that day (in 2005), but I would say that since then Portumna have improved a hell of a lot. They’ve come through and won the All-Ireland club championship two years in a row. There’s not too many teams want to meet them at this stage but we’ll get in the right frame of mind.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
