Survivor Seán Óg embraces change

As a survivor from the ’90s, Seán Óg Ó hAilpín is well qualified to discuss the changes in hurling in the last 10 years. One significant difference, however, is the number on the jersey. Nowadays it’s meaningless.

“No one holds positions any more. That’s the big difference now. Back in ’99 if you played wing-back you stayed wing-back and the wing-forward stayed wing-forward. He might venture into the full-forward line when the ball went in there, but that’s about it.

“Now he goes down the half-back line, midfield, the far touchline — he’s all over the place. It’s an indication of the fitness levels now of the current player.

“Galway are that prototype — none of their forwards stay in position. They move around , play the ball into space and the nearest guy to him runs on to it. We need to get key match-ups and stick to whatever guy you’re assigned. . You can’t let daylight between you and him and, if he moves into another position, you have to make sure your team-mate knows to pick him up.”

Galway face Cork this Sunday in the All-Ireland semi-final and Ó hAilpín points to their keynote performance of the season, that demolition of Kilkenny in the Leinster final.

“I remember Jackie Tyrrell getting a ball early on [in the Leinster final] and he got blown back by Joe Canning number one, which he does to most people because he’s physically strong, and I think it was David Burke threw another challenge in and knocked him back.

“Jackie Tyrrell I would rate as one of the strongest hurlers in the country at the minute. If we get a ball in the hand as a back and we’re expecting to get out with it handy, it isn’t going to happen. Their physicality was second to none — they matched Kilkenny and bettered it where other teams have struggled to match Kilkenny.

“The challenge facing us is immense.”

With that in mind, the Na Piarsaigh clubman says communication among the defenders is “of paramount importance”.

“In days gone by you might get two forwards switching directly,” says Ó hAilpín. “Now you have a forward running one way and another running another way — as much as you shout to the other guy [to mark him] the damage might be done. Everything just happens so quick. You can cover 20 yards in three seconds — 20 yards head start on any opponent is massive.

“Look, I’m sure the management team will sit down and look at the side and get the match-ups for their key players, roll the dice and see where it gets us. If we limit them to no goals it will go a long way to doing that.

“We need to up the ante from the Waterford game. If we think that’s going to be sufficient, it ain’t going to be sufficient. We need to ramp it up, we need to deliver our best display of the year. Our best display of the year, if we look back on it, won’t be good enough to beat Galway. Our next game has to be our best game this year.”

Ó hAilpín is 35 now. How is the post-game recovery going?

“It’s pretty slow — the legs were still in bits on Tuesday. It’s easy to keep the body reasonably fit, it’s being able to get the body to sustain 70 minutes of inter-county hurling now. It’s ferocious stuff now — a million miles an hour left, right and centre.

“That was my first big hit-out in the championship [in two years]. I had a few runs in the league, but there’s no comparison. I’m glad to get the body through the Waterford game to get a flavour and a sample of the pace at that level.”

Given his experience though, he must be mentoring Cork’s younger players...

“Funny enough, those guys are mentoring me. It’s amazing the young brigade that are coming up and the great swagger and confidence that they have. I’m learning a lot of things off these guys — the likes of Twitter and Facebook and what young 20-year-olds get up to these days.

“I have been totally in a bubble the last few years! Social media is not my thing so it’s interesting to hear their comments on those issues.

“These guys are the future. The older guys, what we can offer to the younger guys is ‘we’re in a semi-final this year, we may not be there next year so when you get the opportunity you have to seize it’. The older fellas are trying to tell the younger fellas this all the time.

“It’s great to be playing alongside the likes of Darren Sweetnam, Conor Lehane, these guys, because the youthful joy rubs off on the older fellas and it shows us things that we tend to forget as the years go by. I have really enjoyed this year.”