This one is going to be personal.
Tipperary and Galway are neigbhours, they are rivals, and they will meet in Croke Park for an All-Ireland semi-final for the third time in three years – one win apiece, this Sunday will be the decider.
Damien Hayes is from Portumna, and he knows all about the ferocity of this rivalry. The east Galway man, club mate of Joe Canning’s, was born only a stone’s throw away from Lorrha Dorrha, the most northerly club in North Tipperary, and the home of The Premier County’s two-time All Star Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher.
Hayes was speaking on The GAA Hour Hurling Show on Thursday when he revealed the management and coach exchanges that have gone on between the two counties in the last few years.
Galway manager and Clarinbridge club man Micheal Donoghue worked with the Tipperary team in a selector capacity for two years between 2013 and 2014.
Donoghue was working under the then Tipperary manager Eamon O’Shea, a Kilruane club man who works as a professor in National University of Ireland Galway.
“People may not realise this lads, right, but Micheal Donoghue was a ‘hidden selector’ on the Tipperary team for the last two years. He was a hidden selector under Eamon O’Shea who brought him in. He knows absolutely everything about these Tipperary players. He worked with these players for two years,” said Hayes.
The Portumna man wonders what Michael Ryan thinks of Donoghue’s past involvement with Tipperary, and feels that the pair have been nip and tuck over the last two years, and that this will be the decider.
“I often wonder what does Michael Ryan think of this? That Eamon O’Shea brought an ‘outsider’ from Galway down to Tipperary. I feel this game is going to be a battle of the sidelines, because let’s get it right, Tipperary played Galway last year and Tipperary were meant to win this game. Tipperary were five weeks in limbo (after winning Munster) and Micheal Donoghue nearly got the better of Michael Ryan, and many thought he should have, if it wasn’t for John Hanbury slipping and missing the ball and Bubbles doing absolute magic along the sideline, Galway could have won that game.
Donoghue isn’t the only Galway man with experience working with Tipperary. Donoghue brought the former Tipperary strength and conditioning coach, Lukasz Kirszenstein, to Galway at the beginning of the year.
In fairness to the Polish man, this Galway side have looked as fit, as lean and as strong as they have in years.
“People may not realise this either, but Micheal Donoghue went and stole the Tipperary physical and conditioning coach. He’s a Polish guy, His name is Lucasz, I don’t know his second name now, being honest, but he was meant to be the main man behind that Tipperary team. He was meant to be absolute the dog’s business right, and Galway now have him as their physical conditioning coach this year.
“Now people are saying, Galway are flying it and Galway are strong, and Galway look very fit and they look very lean. This is because of the work of the strength and conditioning coach who came from Tipperary. Now, it’s very interesting that Michael Ryan, who worked with Micheal Donoghue, under Eamon O’Shea. Micheal Donoghue becomes the manager of Galway, he was with Tipperary for two years. He humiliates him in a league final, he takes his physical conditioning coach – this game is going to be personal.
We can’t wait for the clock to strike 4:00 on Sunday.
You can listen to the lad’s discussion here from 34″00′.
