Gillane not paying much heed to the opposition

There’s a blissful ignorance to Aaron Gillane’s hurling that he is loathe to surrender. Although he set up Peter Casey for a goal, Brendan Maher had the better of him in last month’s Munster final. It was quite the compliment for 23-year-old as Maher, who had done fine man-marking jobs on Austin Gleeson and Tony Kelly earlier in the summer.

If there is a next time, Gillane should know more about Maher but he admits to not giving too much consideration to his direct opponents.

“I don’t read into that or look into that at all. I go out on the field and I have my job. I have a few targets that I need to hit and if I’m hitting them it doesn’t matter who is on me. All I need to think about going out on the field is doing my job for the team.

You’re going to be marking somebody anyway so it’s all the one. I have my targets and I just have to work as hard as I can for the team and try and hit those targets.

“You could write them at the start but when you’re playing so many matches you don’t need to revert back to the page — it’s constantly in the back of your head and it’ll keep driving you on the minute you go out to the field. I know straight away what I have to do and if they’re going right I think I’ll have a good game.”

It might be from one bad experience that Gillane has learned not to pay too much mind to his marker. Lashing out as he did against Cork defender Seán O’Donoghue in last summer’s Munster SHC round game cost him plenty, a dismissal that day, followed by a one-game ban and then not being started in final round match in Ennis. Talk about a lesson learned.

“Definitely yeah, because I suppose it was only my third ever Championship match. Sure, it was all kind of new to me at that stage.

Definitely, I have learned from it. Since that, it was probably the worst thing I have ever done because I have kind of came up against much worse in the matches we have played since then.

“Just wasn’t thinking, just lost my head, and ultimately I let the team down that day. I’ll say it until I’m old and not playing any more, Graeme (Mulcahy) and Seamus (Flanagan) really dug me out of a hole that day. Seamus had to be carried off the field that day, because he had to do twice the amount of running. I suppose I’ll be forever thankful to them that they kind of rescued me in a sense. Luckily enough, the team didn’t lose and we still got a point. It wasn’t all bad.”

Gillane simply had to get wiser to the ways of the corner-back. “All you can do is just stand up and take it, and try and get the next ball. As everyone says, you are told from when you are six years of age, there’s only one place you give your answer and that’s on the scoreboard. That’s my motto.

“I wouldn’t say I’m the only one. I think any good back would be doing it to any forward so. It’s just trying to put you off your game. I’m sure the three boys in our full-back line are doing the exact same thing. I can’t complain too much.

“It isn’t even (verbal). I think them days are gone nearly. Obviously, everyone wants to win and all. I think that’s more childish than anything. I really haven’t come up against anyone like that so far anyway, thank God.

“As far as I am concerned like they can do what they want, and they are going to do what they want. It is their job to try and stop the forward. They can do what they want to try and do their game. I am going to try and do all I can to carry out my job.”

It helps that Gillane is physically bigger this year. Weighing about five kilograms heavier than last year, moving up to a figure that fluctuates between 90kg and 91kg, the Patrickswell man isn’t as willowy as he might have appeared last year.

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“Yeah, look, that is testament to our strength and conditioning coach Joe O’Connor. He works on each individual meticulously and maybe he thought I needed to put on a bit of weight and get a bit stronger, so maybe he needs to be complimented for that, I suppose.”

Gillane returns to Croke Park on Saturday where he has scored 1-25 in his last three outings. He’ll arrive in the stadium with no need for Beats headphones or the like — by the time he gets to the dressing room the music will be pumping.

“It kind of keeps us calm,” he says. “It’s normal, it’s what we do. We walk into training and Tom Condon is there in the corner playing all these stupid songs.

"It keeps us relaxed and focused because if you go in and there’s no music your head is going to be in overdrive thinking about the match.

“It just helps us go in, chill out and not think too much about the match at all.”