YOU COULD FORGIVE Noel Connors for focusing his GAA life on a career as a Waterford senior hurler.
They’re ramping up their preparations for Sunday’s hurling league semi-final against Tipperary but off the pitch he’s immersed in GAA as well after going down the PhD road at Waterford IT with his studies revolving around ‘club leadership within the GAA’.
“I’m a glutton for punishment,” laughs the 24 year-old. “I’ll be a student for a few more years yet. It’s basically going into GAA clubs as grassroots levels and trying to capture club leaders who are at the heart of every club.
“There might be one or two within clubs, just go in and have a conversation with them and try and generate themes or qualities that they have. We’ll be doing that throughout Ireland and try to conceptualise qualities that they need and feed them back into GAA.
“The GAA can promote or even hold classes for people that are trying to get involved in GAA clubs. It’s so that GAA clubs can ultimately be effective and efficient.”
Connors travelled around South-East Asia and Australia in late 2013. He credits that spell with leaving him refreshed for his current hurling and educational challenges.
“It’s a great opportunity to re-evaluate yourself and to be fresh. It rejuvenated me to an extent. When we got away for three months, I didn’t pick up a hurley. I went to South-East Asia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, China and Australia. I went for a small bit of a journey. I came back as hungry as ever.
“I started the PHD (last) September. I’d been looking at it just after I came back actually. I was lucky enough to get a good supervisor who met with me over the summer, we put together a proposal in place and I got accepted into the college in September.
“God only knows what it (research) could bring up, I’m still only eight months in. I still have about another two to two and a half years to go. I think it’ll be interesting at the end.
“I’m fortunate enough to be involved in the Madden Leadership Programme (with the GPA). We’d our first class there about two weeks ago. It’s great to meet so many different leaders from different organisations and in different professions. A lot of the work is based online which is fantastic from a sporting perspective.”
The latest chapter in Waterford’s fine spring campaign under manager Derek McGrath takes place this Sunday when they face a league semi-final tie against Tipperary.
“Derek’s first year was just as challenging for him as it was for us and he learned quite a lot over the 12 months,” remarks Connors.
“We did too in that we were probably quite young and naive at the time, lacking a small bit of experience to an extent. However, that was going to come together over the winter and lads knuckled down.
“Everybody wants to be successful and when everyone is singing off the same hymnsheet it makes things a lot easier.”
