Trek from 30 degree Dubai to Castlelyons is no sweat, insists Spillane

Saturday was Anthony Spillane's fifth trip home from the Emirate state in nine weeks, and there's more to come as the Cork club annexed a Munster club title in style

GOAL: Anthony Spillane nets one of his three goals in Saturday's Munster Club IHC final against Corofin in the Gaelic Grounds.

ANTHONY Spillane flew home from Dubai last Friday and returned there Monday. The criss-crossing between Castlelyons and the Emirate state has become part of his weekly schedule.

The weekend's Munster Club IHC final was his fifth over-and-back in the past three months where he put down a 21-hour round-trip in order to lend a considerable hand to the local hurling effort.

That hand was felt strongly at the TUS Gaelic Grounds on Saturday. Amid a thick blanket of fog, Spillane's imprint was perfectly visible. Though you’d not think it, the now familiar - and lengthy - episode of planes, trains, and automobiles is much easier, he insists, than being sat on a Dubai sofa and streaming from afar.

School-teacher Spillane was unable to get home for Castlelyons’ extra-time Munster intermediate semi-final win over Kerry’s Crotta O’Neill’s a fortnight ago.

This time around, he was so grateful to have swapped Dubai’s almost 30-degree heat for the freezing December cold of home.

“That was the toughest game of the year for me,” Spillane said of being a semi-final streaming spectator. “It just didn't work out for me t get home. It was a Sunday game and it was in Kerry. I wouldn't have had the Monday off (school) and wouldn't have been back in time. Thank God the lads got over the line. They did brilliantly that day. It was unbelievable the way they ground it out in the second half. I just don't think in previous years we would have done something like that.

“It just seems this year we are getting those results, whether it is experience or the level of training we are doing, and the lads are training unbelievably hard. I kind of feel guilty at times coming back, given I’m over in the Emirates watching movies while the lads are busting their backsides here.” 

Spillane bust his backside and the net at the Gaelic Grounds. He had a Munster final hat-trick by the 16th minute of the opening half. He finished with 3-2 from play.

“It was one of those games that kinda just went by and you didn’t realise it until after,” he said of his early goal rush. “After 30 seconds, they had a chance of a goal. But they hit it over. The next ball down, we got a goal. Fine margins.” 

Spillane has one week left in the school term and then home again for their All-Ireland semi-final against Tooreen of Mayo.

“People over there think I am mad coming back home so often. It is kinda hard to explain to someone who is not from Ireland. I grew up in this club. My dad is a fanatic, he captained Castlelyons years ago. I just love playing. So when I moved over, I said I'd do my best to continue to play. I am privileged to be able to do it. Not everyone can. I'll try and do it for as long as I can.

“To be in an All-Ireland semi-final is unbelievable. It will be tough, but it is unbelievable to be there.

“(Coach) Noel Furlong said the county is for the players, because we had been waiting so long, whereas Munster and All-Ireland are for the community. I think we are getting better and better. Roll on two weeks' time.”