Never have as many hurlers lived under the one roof.
First of all it was Kilkenny’s Walter Walsh and Tipperary’s Noel McGrath who lived in the south Dublin residence. These lads got to know each other in UCD where they studied Ag Science side by side.
Soon after that in 2015, Matthew O’Hanlon came along just as he began his masters in the same college. The Wexford hurler was good friends with the big Tullogher Rosbercon man Walsh from their secondary school days on the Wexford-Kilkenny border in Good Counsel College, New Ross.
The next to join was Waterford hurler Philip Mahony who was in the middle of his teaching H Dip alongside Walsh. The Ballygunner man was quick to round-up a host of Déise boys to join his battalion. As Noel and Wally moved on, that’s where Darragh Fives and Tadhg De Búrca entered the building.
To complete the who’s who of inter-county hurling stars under the same roof, Kilkenny centre back Cillian Buckley joined the party soon after.
The five of those lads have been living together for a couple of years now but this is the first time their championship interests have been ended before the dawn of August.
Four of the lads are teachers so they moved back home for the summer prior to the beginning of the real business, but Matthew O’Hanlon won’t forget in a hurry all the treks home he made down through the years during the winter months for training in the sunny south east.
“From a stress point of view, you’re training in Wexford, you’re training of a Tuesday and a Thursday. You’re there on Monday evening going, ‘okay I’ve to get my gear ready because I’ve to be out the door at half 7 or eight in the morning,” he said on Wednesday’s GAA Hour Hurling Show.
One of the toughest parts, and all of the soldiers in a similar position will agree on this, is the struggle to get the right foods in, rather than eating on the go.
You have to prepare a lot for that one.
“I’ve to have my lunch ready for the way down to training, and also, you’ve to have your lunch ready for the next day because you’re not going to be back up until half eleven or that.
“Then you’ve to get back up and repeat. You’re trying to prepare two or three days in advance,” he said.
That wasn’t the reason the Wexford joint captain took a career break from his job during this year’s championship, but he certainly found the lifestyle a lot easier with more time on his hands.
“It allowed me to get to see the physio if I had any knocks, get a bit of rehab in, down to the sea as much as I could, get an extra gym or hurling session in if I could. I’d arrive to training a little bit earlier and it allowed me to get a few bits in that I wouldn’t get to do when I was wrestling with the N11 and M50 to get down to training on time.”
Seeing as the Wexford hurlers played for four weeks in a row, the time off work was ideal for O’Hanlon – time he took because in order to continue in his job, he would have been forced to move abroad for the year.
“Having been in Dublin for 7/8 years, up and down that N11, I said I’d give it another go,” he reasoned.
With Wexford knocked out by Clare last weekend, his focus is fully on his club’s St James’s now and their progress in the county championships.
Time is money for GAA players and the county boys are never left with too much on their hands.
You can listen to Conal Keaney and Matthew O’Hanlon on their seasons, and their tips for the closing stages of the championship here.
