HUNGER.
WHEN ALL is said and done – when the elite few counties have honed their skills and completed all the hard yards of training – the outcome of Championship hurling match so often comes down to nothing more than who needs it more.
He’ll be relatively removed from the cut and thrust of Sunday’s All Ireland hurling semi-final.
But Tipperary goalkeeper Brendan Cummins has warned; the chances of Kilkenny being satisfied with their lot before throw-in in Croke Park can be ruled out after Galway robbed the sustenance of a Leinster title from under their noses.
“Whether they caught them [by surprise] or not doesn’t make any difference,” Cummins says, “it was a fantastic performance and the only difference now is that they have created an even bigger monster in that Brian Cody can now turn around to his players and say this is what happened ye and now prove that it won’t happen again. I’d say we all have our axes to grind on this one.”
Cummins is speaking from experience. Many onlookers have remarked at how Tipp looked relatively sluggish, a little flat when they arrived to defend their crown last September. The 37-year-old might contest that Kilkenny leapt forward while Tipperary remained at the same level which earned them the Liam McCarthy Cup.
“Kilkenny had the hurt from the year before.” He says, “They had listened for twelve months about Tipperary had hurt ye and scored x amount of goals against ye, that’s absolutely going to brew inside a fella’s head.
“It unleashed in twenty minutes above in Croke Park and that was the end of it. We were playing catch-up after that and that was disappointing from our point of view – we didn’t handle that well.”
This year though, the boot is on the other foot and the Tribesmen have shown that there are weaknesses in the black and amber shield. Cummins spoke about the mood in the camp after such a comprehensive final defeat, how the sense of letting people down only intensifies with the more familiar faces you meet.
“You lock that away somewhere safe in your head,” says the man with more experience under his belt than most, “and hope that when you have any doubts down the road, that the box opens and off you go again and get the drive.”
As he speaks about hunger and drive, it’s clear that Cummins is relishing the first whistle. Once that shrill peep arrives his 14 teammates can get down to the serious business of channelling all that hard winter training, all those extra hours of stickwork and all that hunger into winning the small battles.
“Every team has acknowledged that everyone else is as good as each other,” Cummins asserts, “the only difference is how hard you work to get the ball back. Kilkenny showed that last year in front of me at one stage they had about four hooks when we had five pucks to clear the ball 30 yards from our own goal. That ignites the crowd and sets everybody off.
“Somebody scoring a point gets a well done lads, but if someone gets a hook, a block or a turnover, the place goes nuts because it means that the opposition are on the back foot and you are attacking.”
Once the hunger is in place, skill will take care of the rest.
