Pat Bennett on helping hurling, managing against his sons, and facing Davy Fitz
Carlow hurling manager Pat Bennett at the launch of the 25th annual Circet All-Ireland GAA Golf Challenge in Michael Lyng Motors, Kilkenny. This October’s two-day event in Killarney Golf and Fishing Club is in aid of former Tyrone footballer Catriona McGahan. Catriona suffered life-altering injuries in an accident while on holiday last year. This year also marks the 10th year of Circet’s sponsorship. Picture: Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
The Bennetts are in the wars.
You will hear about Carlow manager Pat’s own situation shortly but allow him to tell you about his son Stephen’s first.
People will see the incredible 3-12 he posted for Waterford last Sunday and wonder if his chronic hip problems are really all that bad. But they are.
“He comes home on Sunday night and he's in a bath of ice trying to get it (inflammation) down. The one thing I'll just say about him, he's just an absolute dog. If I play him in pool, if I play him in... he just wants to win, and he'll want to beat me. He'll have a cut. That's him all over. Other than that, he wouldn't be doing it.
“He can't walk. We went for coffee (Monday) morning and he can't walk. He can't get into a car.
"That's the thing. He's just doing rehab (Monday), went to the swimming pool and then won't train Wednesday and probably hit a few balls Friday night and he's away again.
“He's got to get two new hips. So, it's going to be when it happens, but he's 30. You don't want to be getting two new hips at 30. You kind of want to push it out.
Carlow’s Joe McDonagh Cup schedule is kind. It will mean Bennett will get to all but one of his three sons’ four Munster SHC games. Carlow are in action on Saturday against Westmeath as just as they were last weekend when defeating Laois.
It frees him up to take in events in Walsh Park this Sunday as he did in Ennis and be a dad.
“Stephen got Man at the Match. Kieran didn't come on. Shane was taken off. So, you're meeting them three after and you've got three different things coming at you and you're trying to be nice to the three of them in the sense that they're my sons and I'm going to back them to 100% anyway.”
Almost 64, Bennett is retired and can commit to hurling more than he ever could previously but he has learned to his cost that he has limits.
Last June, soon after completing a year as Antrim selector with Davy Fitzgerald, he suffered an episode. “It was just everything came at me, right? I collapsed one day. Look, I had a thing I had to get done two years ago. I had treatment. I had prostate cancer, and I had treatment.
“All well, touch wood with everything. It's going okay. But it's just I didn't think it at the time. I was leaving home at 8 o'clock in the morning, I wasn't getting back until 3 in the morning.
"You're doing all that driving, and you're not eating the best. I put a lot of weight on. I lost three stone after it.
“So, I'm trying to keep it down. The doctor's telling me I've got to lose more. It's just hard when you're doing that because you can't get your food right. When you stop, you're getting sandwiches. It's not pretty, to be honest. You're eating at the wrong times, and everything about that is hard. I just came home, and about two or three weeks after, I collapsed.”
He simply couldn’t face into a second year of the commute to Antrim so that was culled. Then Carlow came calling after Tom Mullaly stepped away last November.
It would mean a lot of catching up but after speaking to his family Bennett was on board. “So, the Carlow thing came and I said, you know what, 'Is this kind of like a bucket list?' I hadn't been a manager inter-county.
“Look, what's the worst-case scenario? It's not as if I'm 35 and I want to be gone somewhere else. I'm not. I'm done.
“The county board are unbelievable. The set-up in Fenagh (training centre) is unbelievable. They're actually turning the sod for eight dressing rooms. And they're putting in two more pitches.”
Bennett will face Fitzgerald and Antrim next month and they remain in regular contact but that week will be different.
“We’re at each other every day. I played him two weeks ago in Cork Golf Club, and we were at each other again.”
Who won?
“I won't say it, but I didn't lose,” he chuckles.
Both Bennett and Peter Queally were part of Fitzgerald's Waterford set-up so a challenge with Carlow was easy to set up and they faced off in The Gold Coast outside Dungarvan in January. None of Bennett's sons were involved – or so he assumed.
“So, the second half came and (Carlow coach) Shane Briggs came down to me and he goes, ‘Who's that number 24 for Waterford?' And I said, ‘I don't have a clue.’ I said, ‘No interest.’
“And I look at Shane, he's played the second half and I never knew. And he ended up scoring five points. And I still didn't know.
"I was walking off the pitch and Dan (Shanahan) said it's great to have Shane back and I'm going to go, 'Eh, Shane wasn't playing.'”
Having coached in the Leinster, Munster and McDonagh championship, Bennett fears hurling is seen as “just a commodity” in Munster and the game is not being developed as it should.
"They play the Munster, they play the Leinster. Then they put them together and they have 16 teams.”
Bennett has a lot of time for director of hurling Willie Maher but “one guy’s not doing to do it,” he insists.
“The likes of Carlow, Antrim, Westmeath, Kerry, I can name them all. Have they improved in the last 30 years? Have they come up? They haven't.”
He continues: “You can throw money at it any way you want. Won't make a difference. You've got to get them into the schools and you've got to get them hurling. But I don't know if they have the appetite in Croke Park to do that because if they did, it probably would have been happening by now.”
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