Skehill back to man his post

LEINSTER SHC SEMI-FINAL:

Crossroads were faced, a wrong turn or two taken along the way, but the destination was eventually reached.

Mind you, there was never any real doubt that the Galway goalkeeper wouldn’t go the distance.

This is, after all, a player who lined out in the All-Ireland final replay just two days after dislocating his shoulder.

Indeed, who could ever forget Skehill booting Paul Murphy’s delivery away to safety, unable to get over the sliothar because of his injury? Where the maroon and white are concerned, his loyalties are well proven.

Nine months on, Skehill is poised to return for the county’s opening game of the Leinster championship. It is a day that has long been marked in the calendar.

“Since I returned to training six to eight weeks ago I’ve been building towards this game,” he says.

In the early months of his recovery however, the Galway team became an afterthought. Galway would look after Galway and it was up to Skehill to do likewise. A new mantra was adopted: Self first, county second.

“I suppose when you’re injured and have a long injury you have to develop patience. You can’t look at the team and stay focused on your injury at the same time. For me it was focus on the injury, focus on yourself.

“Obviously I wanted the team to do well, but from the months of November to March it was all about getting myself right, being patient and doing everything I was told by the surgeon and physio. Once I was right I could start building blocks again.”

Indeed, Skehill employs the metaphor of building blocks several times during our conversation. As a qualified civil engineer it’s hardly a surprise.

“I was told I could return around the 16, 17-week mark after the surgery. They were giving me targets every two weeks or so where I could tackle someone or hit the ground, or I was allowed do a certain exercise in the gym that wouldn’t hurt me. You start building blocks, move on and keep building.”

Central to his recovery was club mate and former Galway captain Damien Joyce. The pair spent many a cold winter’s evening at Cappataggle pitch grinding out the hard yards. Necessary, if not ideal.

Progress was evident, but the most difficult part of the journey was just around the corner. Regaining his hurling sharpness was like learning to walk all over again. Skehill though, was prepared to put one foot in front of the other for however long it would take. Instinct eventually took over and it was like he’d never been away.

“I suppose there was a slight reluctance to dive on that shoulder again because that’s how I injured it before the final. I suppose it was dipping my foot back in the water and trying to get used of it. Once you fall once and get up, it’s okay, you kind of get used of it. I was put into a match situation at training and if a shot comes that you have to dive for you do it without thinking about it. Once you get up and are okay, you start building blocks and move on and keep building from there, but if you have it in the back of your mind the whole time it will affect your performance. So I focused solely on what was in front of me and let my instinct take over.”

Returning to the inter-county set-up was just reward for the hard work put in, but with it came a dose of harsh reality. The panel had been slogging away since Christmas and here was Skehill three months behind and the championship looming.

“When I rejoined the panel, I needed to be mentally strong,” he says. “I got back into training and I knew I wasn’t going to be up to the standard I wanted to be. I just had to keep working hard, keep the head screwed on, keep patient and listen to those who were advising me and not go off on tangents.”

When Skehill was substituted at half-time in last year’s final, into the breach stepped young Fergal Flannery while Colm Callanan also staked his claim.

“It was difficult to watch Colm and Fergal during the league. The lads on the pitch are your friends, but you have to be a small bit selfish because that is where I want to be. On the back of that I was working as hard as I could to force my way back into the team and to give the managers no choice but to pick me.

“I’m confident in my ability but it will be difficult to get in ahead of the two of them, all I can do is stay working. I would be the first to praise the two lads. It’s good for me though because it will kick me into gear in the sense that the better those boys are playing the harder I’ll have to work.”

As Galway’s championship campaign springs to life tomorrow, the towering custodian is right where he wants to be.

“I am a 100% now, but obviously when you come into July and August that is when I hit full 110, 120%. Match practice is key for a goalkeeper. A championship game is worth 10 challenge matches.”

So long as his shoulder obliges, one imagines Skehill’s view for the summer ahead won’t be from the confines of the stand.