ANTHONY NASH STILL vividly remembers his first day in a Cork senior dressing room. It was strange and surreal. As a child he never thought he was good enough to play intercounty. That feeling had not dissipated by the time he walked into the heart of a romanticised generation.
Nash hurled for Kanturk, by no means a hurling stronghold at the time. That district of Duhallow is football country. Only one other member of his U21 panel joined the senior squad. He strolled in softly while his internal monologue screamed: ‘There’s Ronan Curran. Ben O’Connor. Sean Ó O’Hailpin!’
In the shadows of deities. Then God’s hand reached out and offered warm embrace. “Welcome to the panel, young fella,” smiled Brian Corcoran.
“I was pure fanboying,” Nash recalls with a laugh.
“You have to realise what Cork were at the time. Munster rugby used come watch Cork. Armagh came down to learn from Cork’s setup. The players drove it in fairness. Dónal Óg and the boys.
“I remember there would be lads dropping in fitness magazines, ‘pick out what you want there.’ There was nothing you were wanting for. At one stage, our training gear didn’t have to be taken home. It was washed for us and hanging up when we came back. The setup was phenomenal.”
In the 2006 All-Ireland semi-final against Waterford, Nash watched Cathal Naughton rise from the bench beside him to come on and score 1-1. After the game, he mustered all his courage and decided to approach Corcoran:
“Brian, I’m really sorry about this. Is there any chance you’d swap jerseys with me?”
“Hold onto yours kid. You can have mine anyway,” the three-time All-Star replied.
Fast forward to 2014 and Nash was invited to a Cork roadshow on the banks of the River Lee. Sporting greats from across the county were present, but he had eyes for only one man. He approached Corcoran, with the 2006 jersey in tow. The jersey is signed now and set to be framed for the study wall.
This affection for that generation was ever-present, which is partly why he expressed his disappointment with some criticism from that quarter in the aftermath of the 2014 All-Ireland semi-final loss against Tipperary.
“A few lads we would have played with came out with comments I was disappointed with because I would have togged out beside them in the dressing room, and it’s easy to criticise,” he admitted at the subsequent season’s Allianz League launch. “I hope when I retire that I won’t criticise players that have played.”
He moved on to praise Jimmy Barry-Murphy and his team. But that modest spark instigated a hellfire. One newspaper labelled it ‘a rocket’ and ’thinly-veiled attack’ on his former team-mates. Letters from furious fans arrived in thick bundles. Complaints to his home and to the school where he worked.
“They read that and thought I was attacking these great All-Ireland winners. All I was basically saying was, look it was a pity. I never mentioned names, deliberately.”
It was another county icon that bolstered what would become a two-time All-Star and 2013 Player of the Year nominee. As a teen, Nash played for the Limerick U14s. His family have deep ties in the county. His current club is South Liberties. His first cousin, Barry, recently won his third All-Ireland medal.
By the time he was 16 years old, however, Nash struggled to clear the halfway line with his puck-out. It was a slight problem that felt like a calamity. He tried everything. Fibreglass hurleys. Drilling a small hole in the bas and inserting lead in it. Eventually, his father found help. He was a Garda alongside Ronan Curran’s father, Pat. When Pat heard of the predicament, he promised to arrange a session with Ger Cunningham.
The four-time All-Star ended up giving an eternally grateful Nash his size 38 puck-out hurley. Ever since he has been obsessed with making sure they are right. Often overly so.
“One time I actually had to have a meeting with Gary Keegan, one-on-one. We were playing Waterford in an All-Ireland semi-final.
“So, before it we had a training session inside in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and Hoggie (Patrick Horgan) always did a thing of practising penalties, if I was brave enough to stand in goals.
“He smashed it down the middle and broke my hurley. Straight down the handle. I felt it crack. I was paranoid about hurleys. So was Hoggie. This one had been repaired about 50 times. It snapped at the handle, hurley gone.
“I had a week to get used to a new one and that year we were big on short puckouts, so the feel of the hurl was massive. I pencilled in a meeting with Gary Keegan anyway. He said what do you want to talk about? And I said I broke my hurley! He still got it. He was brilliant.
“I used one of the best sports psychologists in the world to deal with breaking a hurley.
“See when you are in goal, you have time to think and feel it. I went through 2013 with the same hurley. Broke it in the league and fixed it. The night before our first game, my band came loose. The hurley had been sanded so much by Aidan Walsh that it got so thin.
“He decided he had to put a screw into it. The hurley was so thin at the time, it was like watching a family member in surgery. Somehow, he did it perfect. He told me once he was more nervous than I was. We were playing Sunday, and this was the Friday night. Genuinely, if it didn’t work, I would have had to ring Jimmy and tell him take me off. I can’t play.”
He never thought he would get so caught up about an opening championship tie. At one point he never thought he would play championship. Rewind to two years previous and if you’d offered one season in goals for Cork, he’d have snapped your hand off.
Nash arrived into a panel knowing backup goalkeeper Martin Coleman and the rich heritage he hailed from. He thought he knew the number one too. In reality, it was not until he stepped behind the iron curtain that he truly grasped the essence of the man and that team. Unyielding confidence he could not contemplate never mind channel.
“First year I was just delighted to be there. Second-year I got in because of Semplegate. I thought my time would come and then I realised how good Dónal Óg was. What he did. How he minded himself. How consistent he was. I was looking at him thinking, ‘Oh, I am not that.’
“I was always like that. My father got me trials for Cork minors and I had war with him. I said, ‘I’m not good enough Dad.’ I played Limerick U14 and didn’t play the following year for my own reasons and then got a Cork trial.
‘I’m not good enough Dad. what are you doing?’ We played in the Glen U21s in a challenge, and I got on the panel. When I got onto the senior panel then I was still doubting my ability.
“Dad used to always say, ‘you are good enough.’ I saw Dónal Óg and thought ‘I am miles behind him.’ When I got in, I played Waterford that day and got riddled by one of the best forward lines I’ve ever played. I left in five goals. I don’t think I made any massive error; I mean they were great goals by incredible forwards. I still thought that was it. I was so disappointed. That was me. My only game for Cork. Remembered as the guy who played one game for Cork and left in five goals.”
He learned from Dónal Óg. He was moulded by Dónal Óg.
“He was very open with me. See he didn’t see me as a challenge, that is why. He said it himself, the first time he met me I was very heavy. Played intermediates against them in a challenge match. Then I lost weight and got fitter. He was always pure honest. I came in and then lost the weight, got heavy into the gym.
“I might be being unjust there, but I just thought he felt… look, as long as he played well, he was in goals for Cork. He didn’t mind sharing with us. As I got older, he really helped me as well though.”
In Cork, the Liam MacCarthy Cup is the only currency that matters. It often feels like celebration or crisis. For all of that, 2013’s fall at the final hurdle endures as sorrow, not regret. He openly admits they were not the better team on either day.
As for personal highlights, the 2018 save in the dying minutes against Tipperary immediately comes to mind. At the time it felt routine, it was only when Corkonians started to congratulate him in the street that he realised it was special.
“In that moment nothing goes through your head. Nothing. I don’t want to keep bringing up Gary Keegan, it is that flow state. That was to my weak side. Looking back, it was one of my proudest moments as a shot-stop.
“I was always known later for my puck outs. I thought I was decent at saves too. Once I made a double save against Kilkenny from a penalty. Richie Power took a penalty and Tommy Walsh was nearly on top of me.
“He had to retake it. I stepped then because I thought he was going the same place and he went down the middle. I saved it and it broke ironically to Tommy Walsh, so I had to get up and make a stop. That Bubbles save I’d put it up there as the best I made. A wet ground. That man pulling on it. When a forward pulls on the ball like that neither he nor you know where it was going.”
7 Days until Christmas! 🎄Today in our Christmas Cracker Countdown we're taking a look back to this unbelievable save by @OfficialCorkGAA 's Anthony Nash against @TipperaryGAA this year! What a cracker save! pic.twitter.com/FHUqL76bIG
— The GAA (@officialgaa) December 18, 2018
On a Sunday afternoon at the end of 2020, the then 36-year-old released a short tweet and walked away. His final outing was in an empty Gaelic Grounds on a wretched evening as they were downed by defending All-Ireland champions Tipperary in a qualifier.
He didn’t know then it would be his final appearance for Cork. The only certainty was that it was his least enjoyable campaign.
“I felt it in my last year. The management wouldn’t have been… it is not to be controversial, but my last year was my least favourite year. I just thought certain members of management were a bit focused on stuff I wasn’t focused on. My age was one thing. As opposed to performance. I was like ‘right, ok.’
“Then Kieran rang me after the season, I have spoken to him since and we get on, but he rang me and said he was going to give the boys more time. It would be at least 50/50. I thought, ‘right, ok. This isn’t it.’ What am I really being judged on? Two of us agreed it would be better for me to step away.
“I went to the Graveyard in Salthill the year before. So, I pulled a muscle in my stomach against Waterford. First league game I was in agony. Every puckout felt like I was getting stabbed. I was only supposed to miss two games.
“I was told I was getting the Limerick game. I was told by Christy O’Connor I was getting it. Didn’t happen. Then it was Galway away. I was like, ‘what is going on here? Are they sending me to Salthill to save my career?’
“Fortunately, I made a save from Jason Flynn in the first two or three minutes. Point blank. Six yards out. You know by a fella’s reaction; he went away hands on his helmet. One of the selectors told me I was under furious pressure in that game.
“I know Kieran wanted to move the team on. They did well to get to a final last year. I remember Ronan O’Gara wrote an article about the bittersweet feeling watching games.
“I didn’t enjoy my last year, that stuff and then Covid kicked in during the middle of it. I went away and did my own training, got into savage shape with Declan O’Sullivan. The physio and S&C coach in Charleville. I came back flying fit. That got that out of their head.
“If I didn’t play well that day against Galway I was gone. When Kieran rang me, I felt it coming. When he rang me, I said to myself I could go, not quite on my own terms, 80%. If he’d rang me and said, ‘We love you. You are number one.’ I would’ve gone again. But I knew I would have to give a commitment that I couldn’t give.”
He is excited by the current crop and knows the number one jersey is in good hands. Patrick Collins took on the mantle and Nash predicts he will soon start collecting All-Stars.
Having heard Nash speak about the team with his punditry or podcasting, it is noticeable that he speaks about one player with the same reverence reserved for the royalty of his childhood. His admiration and awe of Patrick Horgan are obvious. He and the Glen Rovers stalwart remain close. They talk daily. Friend, team-mate, sporting hero.
“The reason I do is because I know how good he is. We just got on. We used to play pool before training. He is a pure Glen man. I warmed to that; I love the characters of the Glen. His buddies are sound and great craic.
“He is younger than me but was above his age. This superstar was coming as a 16-year-old. I think he still sometimes gets unfair slack actually.
“I love a guy who has a good attitude. He’d be there hours before. He’d practise frees and I’d practice puck outs, hitting him the ball. He is a character as well. A great laugh. Yeah, sometimes he is unfairly treated. He works hard, he just does it in an intelligent way.
“He lives for hurling and I love that. I disagree with the captaincy being taken off him as well. I think Mark will be a fabulous captain but leave him alone. Treat him with respect. I found that towards the end of my career. The older lads need some care too. There is a balance. I think Sheedy did that so well in 2019.”
A theme is emerging. Anthony Nash values strong backing.
“100%. Jimmy was the best I worked under as a manager. He’d make you feel ten feet tall. It was not bellowing speeches. It was just a one-liner.”
As for the sport, his love has never lessened. The buzz he got watching clips of Pat Hartigan as a young lad is still as strong as the buzz from watching Patrick Horgan rifle home 3-10 in an All-Ireland quarter-final. He leaves with one cautionary note. Rearrange the gallery all you want, but don’t tamper with the art.
“Don’t try to keep tinkering with hurling. There is always something. The big thing last year was the length of striking and all that. The game is loved. Appreciate it. Sometimes you have to change, I get that. For example, my penalties. They said it was health and safety. Ok I get that. Fair enough.
“Generally, leave it alone. It is in a great place. Market it better for sure. Focus on growing it but leave the game alone. Let’s enjoy what these great players are doing.”
You can hear Anthony Nash every Monday on The42’s GAA Weekly podcast. Join The42 Membership today and get full access.
