Long wait pays off for Nolan

ALL-IRELAND SHC QUARTER-FINAL:

For six years he’s been on the county’s hurling panel, but Gary Maguire has always been ahead of him in the pecking order.

It wasn’t until this year he earned what he considered to be his championship debut. A round-robin qualifier against Offaly aside, this year he’s earned the number one spot, following years in the wings.

“Tell me about it! It is but, I suppose, if I wasn’t there, I’d be back at my club wanting to be there,” said the St Brigid’s man.

“So I said while I’m here, I may as well put the effort in. Look, you just have to be positive and you have to ready when a chance like the last month has come along.

“And luckily I’ve been there to be able to perform to my best.”

A GAA sub goalkeeper is probably one of the most frustrating occupation within the game.

Tipperary’s Brendan Cummins saw off 10 subs before hanging up his boots. Nolan’s patience was tested more than once over his six years.

“Yeah, a good few times. It’s been a long time, Gary’s still young, he deserves [his place]. He’s playing well. He’s done nothing wrong ... then I suppose Dublin are doing well and there’s people who’d want to be in your position.

“So, if I left I would be sick, so I just took the decision to stick on and, thankfully, I got a break.”

He added: “We’ve [Gary and Alan] a working relationship. We get on great but I suppose I’d be no different than the corner-backs trying to get a place with each other. Everyone on the team is competing, because everyone wants to play. When myself, Gary and Stephen Chester are training, we try and bring the best out of each other because if we’re doing anyone favours, we’re doing an injustice to each other. So we push each other hard and when Anthony picks the team, we’re happy for whoever’s playing. We’ll support them.”

This weekend though it’s Maguire who’s likely to be on the bench. Having recovered from an awkward break to his thumb, he’s second behind Dublin’s man of the match from the defeat by Kilkenny in the Leinster SHC final. But from that frying pan they’ve landed in the fire of Semple Stadium where a rejuvenated home team await. A tough task?

“In sport, whether you’ve won or not, you just have to look forward. So were looking forward. We were waiting to see who we could get and we were preparing ourselves; and then we obviously found out it was Tipperary. You know yourself in sport, lads are looking forward to the next challenge and that’s all we were looking forward to. It’s an All-Ireland quarter-final and that’s great.

“Look, to win it, you have to play against these teams ... like, it’s a quarter-final, there’s only six teams left, you’re bound to come across the good teams; they’re all good teams. So it didn’t matter who it was, we’re treating it as being a quarter-final and it is against Tipp, so ... I can’t wait.”