Hurling has changed, and Tony Kelly has changed with it
He was still only a teenager then. He’s a thirty-something now.
In the intervening years Tony Kelly saw the game change and in turn changed his own, always believing someday that he’d return to that stage that he adorned in 2013.
But that faith has been tested, far greater than he anticipated 11 years ago.
“When you’re 19, 20 and you get there so soon and win it having come off underage success, you’re like, ‘This is going to be a run of the mill job now.’ Maybe every second year.
“But as the years go on, there’s a greater appreciation of actually how hard it is to get of Munster and get to an All Ireland final.”
At the time the game and Clare seemed to be the height of sophistication but when he looks back on it now there was an innocence or even naivety to both.
“Hurling back then was probably a lot simpler. In terms of the training, there was probably more [volume]. But load management is a massive thing now. S&C is huge now. It was big then but it has gone to another dimension.
“And the way game was played back then, a lot of it was just up and down the field. When I watch back the games from 2013, I’m going, ‘Jesus, you played all right in a few of those games.’ But then you’d see yourself getting a ball and driving it 60 yards. And you’re like, ‘Who were you driving the ball to?!’
“Now, if you’re not looking after the ball, you’ll find yourself five, six, seven points down within as many minutes. It’s all about possession.”
Several of the sport’s historians would credit some of that to that 2013 Clare team and its manager-coach combo of Davy Fitz and Paul Kinnerk but for Kelly it evolved to another level under the Limerick team of Kiely and Kinnerk.
“It’s born out of looking at the teams that have been winning. Limerick were probably the first to bring in really looking after the ball. And everyone else had to adapt to that because if you weren’t good at it, you really had no chance of competing.” He watched Limerick’s semi-final against Cork at home with David Fitzgerald and not in a passive way.
“We were probably watching the game within the game. We wouldn’t be have been paying attention to the score; we’d have been paying more attention to the build up to the score. If lads were shooting a score or were on the ball, we might have had our eye on who was on the other side. Are they going with different setup? Are they going man to man or letting players off?”
In the study of expertise they call that pattern recognition. And as someone trying to master his craft, Kelly came to recognise other patterns, like the criticism or tendency that he could drift out of games.
From 2014 to 2019 he went without an All Star. Even with his club, which he continued to perform miracles for, he couldn’t get into the 2017 All Ireland final. He credits Brian Lohan for revitalising Clare upon his appointment in 2020 but Kelly’s own revival – three All Stars in consecutive years – he attributes more to experience.
“I suppose in my own case he came in while I was at a great age. I was 25, 26; not 21, 22 anymore. I’d more experience banked, of playing really well, not playing well, being in and out; the only way you gain that experience is from playing in games.
“When you’re younger you probably chase it more. But the biggest thing I’ve learned is patience. When you’re not maybe in a game from the start, it’s about just staying patient. Not that you stand up completely but don’t force it, don’t run around like a headless chicken and end up being on no ball. Let it come to you.”
That patience and experience paid off a couple of weeks ago. At half-time Clare were staring into the abyss and Kelly at a third straight year where his performance level in Croke Park was far below his standard in Munster. Eventually, suddenly, the game came to him. Before Kilkenny knew it he’d finished with 0-3 from play, the same tally he had in both senior All Ireland finals in 2013 when he walked away with Hurler of the Year, Young Player of the Year and a Celtic Cross.
His love of the game has remained undiminished through the years. Even now at 30 he’ll still go down to the club field in Ballyea a few times a week on his own or with Paul Flanagan.
“If it’s a match week it’d only be for a puckaround. But say the week before that, I’d be going down with a focus of getting so many shots off, practising different frees or penalties and different scenarios.
“I love doing that. That’s one of the most enjoyable aspects of (hurling). I think Hoggie (Patrick Horgan) said that earlier in the summer: about how much he still enjoys it.
“To me, the enjoyment level has probably increased from what it was back in 2013. Even with the way the championship is now structured with the home games especially. Back then you could go to Thurles for a Munster quarter-final and if you had 15,000 turn up at it you were doing well.”
One thing is missing though from what he had back then. Beating Kilkenny the last day wasn’t enough.
“Getting to a final probably only means something if you win it. That is the way I’d put it. I've never been on the losing side of an All-Ireland final in Croke Park. Now, I've only ever got there once. But we’ve obviously lost three semi-finals – one to Galway, two to Kilkenny. So when you get to this stage you don't want to have that [losing] feeling for four, five months afterwards.”
But if Clare were to win and he was to bring Liam MacCarthy to Ballyea next Tuesday night? What would that mean?
To him it’s not a matter of consolidating or enhancing legacy. “That wouldn’t be the word.” Validation isn’t it either. It’s ‘worthwhile’.
“It’d make it all worthwhile. Your partner at home not being able to travel for 12 years. The work."
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