Omens good for Damien

Damien Hayes closes his eyes and summons up an All-Ireland final memory.

2005. Galway versus Cork. Hot sun and a full house in Croke Park.

“I can remember one ball I got, and hit it, and it was going over the bar. Then Dónal Óg [Cusack] jumped up, and batted it out. I remember that.”

Pause.

“Sure there wouldn’t be a week that goes by when you wouldn’t think about it.”

The Portumna man was a panellist four years before that, when Tipperary beat the Tribesmen in September (“You don’t forget what the dressing room is like”). This year he’s had a different role. The corner-forward with the searing pace is now a third midfielder.

“There were lots of things tried this year,” says Hayes.

“Against Dublin I switched out to midfield, and enjoyed it. Playing in the corner you’re waiting for the ball, concentrating, trying to make runs. You might make 20 runs in 20 minutes and you might touch the ball only twice.

“When you’re out the field you’re more involved, and our team is so young, Mattie [Kenny, selector] said it first, that my role is now gone from being expected to score 1-3 in every game. My new role is to create from five to 10 points per game, for other players. And Mattie said to me one day my role is to bring lads into the game, to make unselfish runs.

“I only scored one point in the Leinster final, but I did a lot more than score one point.”

Dublin boss Anthony Daly had a close-up view of Hayes’ new posting.

“I think he’s got a new lease of life out of it. The legs are still very good. They mightn’t be at the 110% he was at, and the corner-backs are now probably the two fastest men on any team.

“He might have felt a bit tied down there and playing out the field might suit him better. Portumna would have used him in that role and that suits him and Joe Canning.”

Daly has ample evidence for his view: “In our relegation game with Galway a ball broke in our corner and Damien came from very, very deep to win it.

“Peter Kelly for us might have hesitated slightly, which would be unusual with his pace, and Hayes got it, picked Joe — like Portumna of old — and Joe gave Gary [Maguire] no chance: goal.

“I think he’s enjoying it, and they’re using it well as a ploy. Anthony Cunningham was ruthless at the start of the year, getting rid of a lot of lads you’d have thought were established players. Damien would be the same age as a lot of those lads, or older, but they saw the benefit of keeping him.”

Hayes himself acknowledges the departed. “I was disappointed for them, but I didn’t ring any of them. What do you say to a lad you’ve been on the panel with for six, seven years? “You’d say hello at matches or a wedding, but I knew the commitment they’d put in, and that commitment was second to none.”

Talking of commitment, life is getting busier for Hayes. He works for his father — Al Hayes of Portumna — and is marrying Claire at the end of the year. And building a house.

“People haven’t a clue. Training four nights a week, at 7pm, so I’m out of work at five, trying to get something to eat, then onto the pitch before training for some physio, an hour and a half training, then an hour and a half home, from Athenry, so it’s 10.30, 11 when you’re home.

“I mind myself. I don’t drink, and mind myself. When you’re younger you’d be eating the Supermacs, but you wouldn’t now.

“You’d be minding the recovery, get into the sea, and take time-outs. You can’t go to the hurling wall all the time.”

And Sunday? The repeat of the Leinster final against Kilkenny? “Sure how many times do Real Madrid play Barcelona?” he responds. “How many times do Liverpool play Man Utd? Kilkenny are the top team in the country, we know what’s ahead of us.

“It won’t be easy. But this is our fourth time to play them this year. It’s another game, that’s all.

“It’s expected in Kilkenny to win All-Ireland medals, and always will, but it’s not as easy in Galway. It’s great to have the opportunity to get back there. You can’t say what you can or can’t do, you can’t plan, what will be will be, but we’ll give it everything, and hopefully that would be enough.”

It wasn’t enough in 2005, but this is a new chapter: “The one thing I’ll be telling the younger players is not to make it any bigger than it is. It’s another game. It’s an All-Ireland final, but no bigger than a semi-final.

“It’s still 70 minutes, two halves, and 15 aside. It’s about keeping it as simple as that.”

He’s keen to erase 2005, though not all the memories are grim ones.

“We were so disappointed to lose [the All-Ireland], five of us from that team, the Portumna players, we all went back training the following Wednesday.

“We went on to win the county final, and went on to win the All-Ireland, beat Newtownshandrum, but it was just to get back training. That’s what I remember.”

The memory of victory. Time for some new ones?