Full back is the most specialised position on the hurling field.
An oft-used adage by hurling folk is that the game’s finest stick men are born, and not made. That may be true to an extent, through genes and early habits, but no hurler will be born fully made. Development, both in the mind and in the body will determine who comes through and who falls by the wayside.
Full back requires more development than any other position on the hurling field. Few hurlers are born to be a full back.
That’s because unlike most other players, a number three generally won’t be playing off instinct, they won’t have a licence to roam around the park, to play off the cuff, to throw off the shackles and just let loose with their 30 something inch weapon.
In the making of a full back, these natural instincts will be curbed. The house-minder will only be playing off instinct when they’re so well trained to guard the small square that those learned reactions become natural to them.
Conor Cleary is learning. The Clareman has been re-positioned to full back, from centre back, in the opening rounds of the National Hurling League so far.
He’s had to make a couple of changes to his game to fill that number three jersey. It’s a game of chess, it’s all about thinking and he admitted that it can get mentally draining.
“I suppose the reading of the game is different inside there. In the half back line you could be a bit looser on your man and try to read the ball a bit more, but when you’re inside there, you have to be very aware. I’m learning as I go along too.
“I suppose just on the half-back line, being in the middle third and further out the field, you’re going to get on more ball out there anyway. When I went back to the fullback line, I was more focused on being tight to my man. It’s more mental than physical.”
At centre half back, Cleary covered a lot of ground and he had no problem in doing so. But after three games of the League spent manning the small square, his running stats are well down, and he’s got plenty of slagging for it.
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“I was joking with the S and C coach, the running I do in a game is down a lot compared to what I used to in the half back line. It’s always short bursts, but in the half back line you’re up and down the field. I suppose it’s more mentally than physically drained you’d be in there.”
Those will do little to quash the stereotypes of the lazy full back, but stats often only tell half the story. While at centre back or further out the field, players will undoubtedly rack up higher distances on their GPS stats, the speed and intensity of their play won’t always be at the same level of the constantly explosive last man on the inside line.
Cleary is getting used to spending most of his time inside the shorts of the opposition’s number 14.
He’s revelling in it.
“I do like the challenge of coming up against someone, man on man. I do enjoy that. Out the field, you’re more playing the ball, but I like the battle in there.”
The responsibility is huge where the margins are so fine, but the fear of making a mistake doesn’t bother him.
“You just have to re-focus and get on with it. I’m playing hurling a long time now, and you learn to move on if it does happen. You just have to get it out of your head and focus on the next ball.”
And for any other half backs out there thinking of a move further back, he claims that the principals are still the same. It’ll just take a small bit of learning.
“As I was saying about playing out the field, if you’re a back, your primary job is to mark your man – to keep him scoreless, really. Moving back into the fullback line, that was my main aim: to worry about my man and be as tight as possible. That was always the aim in the half-back line.
“Yeah, I suppose, the principals are the same as out the field, you have to be tight to your man, and you’ve to use the ball well through the lines when you get it.”
Conor Cleary of University pictured prior to the Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup final this Saturday in Mallow. The unique quality of the Electric Ireland Higher Education Championships will see players putting their intercounty and club rivalries aside to strive to achieve Electric Ireland Fitzgibbon Cup glory.
