HE’S HEARD IT, alright.
He’s sick hearing it, to be honest. And he has his concerns. Even talking about it now is sort of adding more chatter and noise around it.
But while Shane Hand is the manager of Kilcormac-Killoughey and therefore invested in the hurling development of Adam Screeney with club and county, he is also his uncle with all the connection, love and protection that involves.
His own son, Daniel, has hurled all the way up on teams with Adam. If the boys aren’t around one house, they are around the other.
Screeney is, by any measure, the face of Offaly hurling’s future. But that face is a lean one. He weighs under 10 stone. Concerns about his ability to survive in the robust world of senior intercounty hurling are valid.
“The size stuff, I am reading it every day of the week; the size, the size, the size,” says Hand.
“He is a smaller man. Genetics is maybe not helping him. He’s probably not going to be huge, although he can get stronger.
“But yeah, everyone talks about his size. He is never going to be a huge man. And in this age of strength and conditioning, county teams are just producing monsters of men now.
“It probably is going to be hard for him. Now look, this time of the year probably doesn’t suit him either; heavy pitches and soft ground. He likes the dry sod underneath him.”
In terms of expectation and reality of what can be achieved, there’s something of a comparison to be made here with Tyrone’s Darragh Canavan.
Carrying a family name like that was always going to bring attention. Mickey Harte handing him a debut as an 18-year-old in the McKenna Cup in late December 2018 ramped things up.
But physically he wasn’t right. Even when Tyrone won the All-Ireland in 2021 he was an adornment to the team rather than a central figure.
Now, at 24, he has compiled sufficient strength and size to marry with his undoubted skills. It’s taken him this time to mature.
Canavan and Screeney share similar traits.
Already, Screeney has, like Canavan, compiled a serious CV at underage.
In last year’s Leinster U20 final against Wexford, he nailed 1-12. The goal was a classic across the goalkeeper bouncer off his left side, and he added eight frees and a 65.
He has since added an Offaly senior title. While the final against Shinrone was one-sided, he himself accounted for 0-7.
Just last week, he nailed 0-4 in frees – taking over the duties from Cork’s Jack Leahy whose radar was off – to help University of Limerick to the All-Ireland Fresher’s title by beating DCU.
𝙀𝙡𝙚𝙘𝙩𝙧𝙞𝙘 𝙄𝙧𝙚𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙁𝙧𝙚𝙨𝙝𝙚𝙧 𝙊𝙣𝙚 𝘾𝙝𝙖𝙢𝙥𝙞𝙤𝙣𝙨
— Official Offaly GAA (@Offaly_GAA) February 28, 2024
Comhghairdeas to @ul_gaa on retaining the Fresher One Championship.
Pictured below are the @Offaly_GAA representatives Cillian Martin (UL), Adam Screeney (UL), Donal Shirley (DCU), Conor Doyle (UL,… pic.twitter.com/dmeWHeaR1F
“He has a big heart. The devilment is in him. He won’t take a backward step,” says Hand.
“Even coming onto our senior club team this year, we wouldn’t have been putting any pressure on him as regards asking him to go score five, six, seven points. All we ever asked him to do was to work his socks off and in fairness to him, he’s class at that. He will track back and work all day.
“He’s a beautiful hurler, a very skilful hurler, but there is a lot more to him apart from that. His appetite for work and hurling is second to none.”
He may have ended up on the losing side, but Offaly minor Adam Screeney is one to watch. #TheSundayGame #RTEGAA pic.twitter.com/kRi7oqQUij
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 3, 2022
As a means of a gut-check, the visit of Cork to Tullamore this Sunday carries both context and meaning.
It’s just over two years ago since the two met in the league at Birr.
19 points separated them at the final whistle.
Offaly hurling, indeed Offaly GAA, would feel they are in a different place right now.
The problem with all that development talk though, is sooner or later some hairy-arsed realism arrives in the form of a big unit trampling out over the top of a ruck, caring little for your underage medals.
The treatment Cork doled out to Screeney in the All-Ireland U20 final was instructive. Three defenders were on yellow cards in the first half for challenges on Screeney. He converted all the frees.
He finished up with 0-9 for the day.
“Is he ready for it?” asks Hand. “I don’t think he is.
“And I am talking as much there as him being my nephew as a hurler. He is very small to be playing there. It’s one thing being 19, but a small 19-year-old…”
He adds, “I know people might give examples that say, DJ Carey was small, that Charlie Carter was small. Seanie McGrath was small.
“But they weren’t coming up against Sean Finn, or Dan Morrissey and these lads. The hurling has just evolved so much with S and C.
“Adam is coming into an age now where he is going to face monsters of men in every backline. I don’t think the likes of Charlie Carter had that to worry about. They were small alright, but the game wasn’t based in fitness and power as much back then.”
He’s here now. He’s had his welcome to senior hurling moments. To see him flourish from here on in would be something that not just Offaly folk will delight in.
