Stamp can no longer afford to play games

It’s the sort of thorny problem Darren Stamp was sure belonged to a past generation. Yet here he is, a day before a Leinster club hurling semi-final, and there’s something else clawing and scraping away at his mind.

Work.

For two years he’s had none and that’s part of the reason he called time on his inter-county career after a decade with Wexford a couple of months back. There’s only so long you can fool around with sport and kid yourself that performances are a substitute for pay cheques. Then one day you glance at your bank balance and realise they aren’t.

“I was in construction work, concrete, and that just dried up,” he said. “I was a bit naive, maybe I should have gone to London but I was hoping something would come up at home so I could keep playing away here with club and county. But I’m hoping to have a job next week, maybe. And that puts hurling into perspective.

“But with Wexford, it took up five days a week. Everything you did, even what you eat. I’ve been out of work so long I realised I need to put more effort into trying to get a job. Instead I was spending my time going out to training. Little things like that all added up.”

The club helped too as there are far worse places to be put out to stud. With the county since 2001 there may have been eight Leinster finals but there was Kilkenny each time and the one year David slayed Goliath, Stamp sat it out. Regrets? “None, never.”

In that same time though, there have been seven county titles with Oulart-the-Ballagh. The difference as he sees it has been underage.

“Wexford haven’t won a minor since ’68 I think. That can’t be happening. Look at the top counties. If we put more into it we’d get more success at senior because guys would come in used to winning.

“We had lads coming into the senior set-up who were used to winning nothing, too used to losing.”

A whip around for comments from colleagues reveals why he gets so frustrated. Teak tough. Hard as nails. No stylist but durable and committed. Underrated. But it’s the suggestion that he’s controversial that causes your ears to prick a little. He says his pay-for-play comments not so long ago were taken too seriously but you can take the rest at face value.

In his mind, hurling is for sissies with the way it’s being refereed and his comment last year about Ballyboden being mercenaries was accurate too. “A guy from Ballyboden a few weeks back was saying there are five or six far superior teams in Dublin to Oulart-the-Ballagh. I find that strange, I can’t remember the last Dublin team to get to a Leinster final. In fact, I think the last one was probably a college team.

“So another fella talking through his arse, and there are a few of them up there in Dublin. That riled us a little going into the Crokes match [last day out in the Leinster championship], this lad saying five or six far superior teams. Far superior teams? We went up and we beat the Dublin champions, are in a Leinster semi-final and a Dublin team ain’t. Says it all really if you ask me.”

He’s refreshing because he’s so honest but at times you worry for him. In the sanitised world GAA has become, his words are grenades, exploding everywhere and sending splinters of controversy in all directions. You wonder how managers have felt about someone so outspoken over the years?

“I think they were okay. A guy like Liam [Dunne] would be straight with you and tell you straight down the line. John Meyler would be up front with you too, but look, you have to be honest and say your piece. Some things I said in the past, people didn’t like it, but tough.

“Everyone else had their say on me and my team-mates and no one complained. Take The Sunday Game lads. They didn’t care and for Wexford, it wasn’t easy for us. It’s not easy to keep going. People don’t understand that.

“It’s very easy to go out and see us losing and criticise us because we aren’t good enough. But people didn’t see us six months before, getting sick after gym sessions and running drills because we tried our best. People having a go, that would affect your humour when you are younger, but you get used to that.

“So you have your own opinion on stuff just as lads on The Sunday Game get to have theirs. Not that you’d take much notice of them anyway.”

But he’s made his mind up now and those big summer days being analysed belong to the past. Tomorrow is as big as it gets for Stamp at this juncture but he’s fine with that because there’s unfinished business. After losing the last two Leinster finals with the club, he says last year hurt more.

The wides, the balls dropping short, the beatable opposition and the fact they promised themselves they wouldn’t let another one get away made it so tough. But now, they are back, out trawling through the ashes in search of redemption. Again.

“Of course Ballyhale will be tough, but reputations, you can think too much about who you are going to mark, who they are, where they are coming from.

“But look, that won’t make a bit of difference on the day. They won’t be focused too much on us. We are only the Wexford champions. So why would we focus on them? We’ll worry about ourselves.”

But that’s a worry for game time. For now he has that thorny problem to deal with and if some shift work in a factory comes up, it’ll be a thorny solution as it will interfere with his club training.

“Has to be done though,” he says matter-of-factly. “Hurling can’t be the be all and end all forever.”