Waterford right to put clubs first, says Mulcahy

Former All-Ireland-winning Cork hurling captain Tomás Mulcahy believes the Waterford County Board took the correct move in cancelling senior hurling training until after the May Bank Holiday weekend.

The four week layoff enforced by county board bosses came into effect on Thursday, April 10, affording Derek McGrath’s side just three weeks preparation ahead of their Munster championship clash with Cork, but Mulcahy claimed it was right to put clubs first.

Moreover, Mulcahy said the large block of training between the league conclusion and championship fare can prove hugely ineffective and releasing players back to their clubs provides reprieve from the inter-county set-up.

“In one sense, it is a good idea,” he told RTÉ’s League Sunday Extra.

The club scene is where the stars of tomorrow are going to come from and there has to be some sort of structure put in place for these guys. I think sometimes inter-county training can be counter-productive, in that you can be together for five and six weeks, five nights a week without any game at the weekend. It can be a fresh approach allowing players back to their clubs, train and play a game with their club, but certainly the way the inter-county scene has gone, there is nothing wrong having them in two nights a week, not for training but as a bonding session.”

Former Tipperary goalkeeper Brendan Cummins doesn’t concur, and criticised the board for effectively handing Cork a head start ahead of their meeting on May 25.

Cummins said it was unacceptable inter-county hurlers were being denied the opportunity to train collectively for such a lengthy period.

“Coming from the inter-county set-up in the last three or four years, every time you mention the dressing room, it is about family, it is about bonding,” Cummins noted.

“Players not being together to play elite sport level for a four-week period... even if they just met up, they don’t necessarily need to train or run around the field, but they do need to meet up to keep linked in with each other. From a tactics point of view, you only have three weeks to prepare for the Cork game. Cork may have stolen a march on them.”

Casting an eye on the championship, Mulcahy said it was imperative the middle-tier counties bridged the gap to hurling’s elite this summer.

The former Cork hurler also called for the financial revenue generated by the Sky TV deal to be distributed among the so-called lesser forces.

“We can all remember 1996 and we need Wexford hurling back up there. We also need the likes of Offaly back up there, teams that had success in the past. My fear is that there is a bit of elitism coming in. There are five or six teams who are pulling away and the rest are slipping. The gap is beginning to get bigger.”

Both men praised Tony Browne following the 40-year-old’s retirement last week, with Mulcahy commenting: “I can never see that happening again. A hurler who plays from his late teens to his early 30s, people will say he has had his day, irrespective of whether he made the team every year or just five years during his spell with an inter-county team.

“Changing methods have made it harder for players to stay hurling into their 30s. The intensity of the game and the scrutiny of the game has changed dramatically.”