AFTER SUFFERING A broken nose and severe concussion following a nasty incident in Cuala’s Dublin quarter-final victory against Craobh Chiarain at the start of last month, Jake Malone feared that his championship involvement could be finished for 2015.
However, after a remarkable recovery he was fit in time for the county final just over three weeks later before a Leinster quarter-final win against Offaly’s Coolderry and yesterday’s semi-final victory against Kilkenny champions Clara.
In his first full year on Cuala’s senior hurling panel, after a brief spell last year, the former Dublin minor and current under-21 player has made a big impression.
And now, after an impressive midfield display against former Kilkenny captain Lester Ryan on Sunday, Malone, and his Cuala team-mates, are one win away from becoming the second Dublin team to be crowned Leinster champions. And he can’t wait to line out against Wexford powerhouses Oulart The-Ballagh on November 29.
“I was still a bit ropey for the county final, I had to get surgery on the nose the week before so I only trained twice before the county final while the lads had been training for almost three weeks. I was blessed to get my spot,” he told The42.
Cuala have been the perennial bridesmaids at senior level in Dublin; they have always had the quality hurlers but have not produced the goods on the big days in the past. So it was a big relief for Malone and his team-mates to put those theories to bed.
“Yeah, I was absolutely delighted with the win. If was great to finally get over the line after a couple of years. There has been very little winning in Cuala.”
So what has changed this year?
“The intensity and the will to win it. I’ve never seen a team so determined to want to win every single game, every single player is pushing themselves harder and harder.”
Against Clara, Malone starred alongside athletic Kerry native Darragh O’Connell in the middle of the park, scoring two points from play in what was a huge occasion for the 19-year-old economics and Irish student.
“I was happy enough. You have some games where stuff just goes right for you. I was happy with my performance. My performance, I wouldn’t really look too much into, it’s about the team performance really and I was happy to be able to help out the lads and drive on the win.”
And for his midfield colleague, he was full of praise. It’s a partnership that he is enjoying being a part of.
“I love it yeah, it’s brilliant. He’s got some set of legs on him. He creates so much space, he’s great to play alongside. He’s brilliant, so fast.”
Malone has come from good athletic stock himself with his mother and father both successful in karate – both, in fact, won silver medals at world championships. And his father still coaches karate in Monkstown. And that has helped him on the hurling field.
“There’s a history of fighting in the family anyway,” he quipped.
While he was also keen on karate as a kid, eventually the hurling took preference in his early teens when he was involved with county, club and school teams at Colaiste Eoin.
He has had no involvement with Dublin’s senior panel as of yet but he will surely be on manager Ger Cunningham’s radar in due course. For now, though, anything other than club hurling is on the backburner with Cuala’s Leinster final, and he hopes further All-Ireland campaign, still to look forward to.
Malone admits he doesn’t know a lot about Wexford champions Oulart The-Ballagh, who comfortably dispatched Westmeath champions Clonkill 0-16 to 0-8. The Wexford side have been the nearly-men of Leinster hurling in recent years; they are still without a Leinster crown despite this year’s final being their seventh appearance, and their fifth in the past six years.
“I wouldn’t have too much info, we wouldn’t tend to focus too much on teams outside of the next game.
“We haven’t looked into them at all yet. I think we actually watched one of their matches on the telly. I think it was on the morning after the county final and we were down in the bar grabbing a bit of food.
“But I’ve heard excellent things. This is their seventh Leinster final, they’ve lost a lot of them so they’ve shown some hunger to keep coming back. And to win six Wexford titles in seven years is something serious.”
While, as always, the party line is about focusing on the next game Malone admits there is tremendous excitement around the Dalkey club about their second Leinster final, the first one a loss to Kilkenny’s Ballyhale Shamrocks in 1990. He knows they are on the cusp of history and is desperate to keep the wins coming.
“It is very special, winning the county title was special. We said after the county final that we wanted to focus on this (Leinster) and really give it a go.
“Obviously this is kind of the end product, the Leinster final. We want to win here, we want to keep going. We want to keep winning. It’s a habit and we seem to be very, very good at it.”
In just under two weeks’ time we’ll find out if that habit is breakable. Either way, there will be one club celebrating their first provincial title.