Curran: We’ll go all out, we always do

ON occasion, a questionnaire passes from player to player in the Cork senior hurling dressing-room, as happens in all counties. Lately, though, Ronan Curran has noticed a recurring pattern.

When the centre-back finds himself penning his age in the relevant box on those forms, on occasion his number — 30 — has had 19 or 20 as a neighbouring figure. Cork have been introducing youngsters during the league and the St Finbarr’s clubman says the policy is obvious within the group.

“You would notice it, when you walk into the dressing-room you see the ‘young’ corner, and it hits you – you’ve been around for a while and now you’re one of the older guys.

“I’m there since 2000 – Jimmy Barry-Murphy brought me in then. The time isn’t long in passing.”

The 2011 league has been pretty beneficial to Cork, says Curran.

“It’s been fairly good to us,” he agrees. “We’ve been fairly competitive in all the games, we’ve been there or thereabouts. With a bit of luck we could have beaten Kilkenny, Tipperary and Waterford – there was only a puck of a ball in those three games between us and winning.

“Now, there’s another side to that – you could say it’s a bit of a worry that we’ve been getting that close without getting over the line in those tight games, but it’s something to work on.

“There’s also the fact we’ve had a good few younger lads coming through and doing well, so that’s grounds for optimism looking ahead to the championship.”

Last year Cork caught Tipperary in the first round of the Munster championship but lost the Munster final replay to Waterford and shipped a heavy defeat in the All-Ireland series to Kilkenny. Is it a worry on Leeside that Tipperary and Kilkenny are ranked by most as well ahead of the men in red?

“Not really, you play for Cork and there’s always pressure anyway. You’re judged on winning All-Irelands and we’ll be going out with the same attitude we had when we were regarded as favourites.

“That doesn’t make a difference, being regarded as favourites or outsiders. It’s the same goal, and the same drive is needed to succeed.”

Last year Tipperary regrouped after that defeat in May by Cork and went on to win the All-Ireland, fine-tuning their side through the qualifiers. Curran feels that it’s better to take the shortest route in the championship, however – not to mention the fact that Cork’s opener is a blue riband GAA fixture in its own right.

“I think the best way is always through the front door. If you start winning you get on a roll and anything can happen, you get better and better.

“If you lose you have to start switching teams around, you’re moving players . . . it gets tougher.

“And also, at the end of the day it’s Cork and Tipperary. It’s what we all grew up with, the games we went to as young fellas. Cork and Tipp is a game unto itself: it’s not even about Munster championship or the All-Ireland final. It’s Cork and Tipp.”

Curran pays tribute to the Cork footballers. “We wouldn’t see that much of them, though we train in the same place the odd time, but we admire what they’ve achieved, winning the All-Ireland, we’d try to feed off that the way they did when we were winning All-Irelands a few years ago,” acknowledging that as the years push on, and a player starts putting 30 down on forms for his age, he’s got to listen to his body when it comes to preparation.

“It can be hard to know what to do – whether to train as hard as you can or to taper down a bit. I took an extra month’s break this year to try to refresh the body a bit and I’m back training hard now.”

In work with Mycro helmets the Cork star talks to hurling people in all counties. He’s well aware, for instance, that Wexford may have more to play for than Cork, but he and his teammates are fully focused on the job.

“I know they’re under pressure, particularly after losing last week to Offaly, so they’ll be out to impress tomorrow in front of their own crowd. We’ll be going all out ourselves, though. We always do.”

The appropriate attitude no matter what your age.