PATRICK CURRAN IS his father’s son in a lot of ways — they even share the same name.
But the young Waterford star is hoping to have very different fortunes on the field when the Déise meet Cork on Sunday.
Pat Curran Sr was part of a Waterford side that ran headfirst into the great Cork team of the early 1980s, captained by Jimmy Barry-Murphy.
While Waterford suffered through a drought that would last for 39 years until they finally won the Munster championship in 2002, Cork lorded it over the province with a magnificent five-in-a-row between 1982 and 1986, adding two All-Ireland titles as well for good measure.
Two of those Munster championships came at Waterford’s — and Pat Curran’s — expense, a 19-point drubbing in 1983 no easier to swallow than the 31-point walloping that the Rebels dished out the year before.
And while Cork come into Sunday’s semi-final in Thurles on a high after beating All-Ireland champions Tipperary, it is Waterford who are the slight favourites this time around.
“My father has been a massive influence on my career and always has been and always will be,” Curran said.
“He’s been brilliant from the moment I picked up a hurley and I suppose he has that experience of playing himself in every aspect hurling-wise and dealing with the hardship as well. He knows how to deal with it and how to give me a helping hand at times which is great.
“I have five brothers as well so I suppose it kind of came naturally that we were just thrown out there but he did put in all the hours of coaching now with all my brothers and lads in the club as well.
“He reaped the rewards because a lot of lads have went on to play senior with the club now as well, which is great.”
One way or another, the blood and bandage of Cork will become a familiar sight for Curran over the next few weeks. After Sunday’s showdown, the counties will meet again in the Munster U21 semi-final on 13 July.
The Dungarvan youngster was one of the stars of the U21 side that won both the provincial and All-Ireland titles last year, but his first season in senior hurling came with plenty of new challenges, both physical and mental.
“You kind of hit reality a small bit, when you’re coming on against Kilkenny there and you’re getting hit with challenges,” he said. “You have to put time into it.
“It’s about getting the balance right between everything, you know, and at the end of the day I always think that it will be the skill that will be the difference in winning and losing rather than the physical strength. They all have a part to play but I think that the skill is the most important thing.
I think once you’re in a team, people from the outside kind of view it differently. Everyone is saying, ‘Why aren’t you starting?’ or ‘Why were you taken off?’ even when sometimes you’re going well and you’re taken off, but it’s to have that mentality to be strong to say you know you’re doing your job and that’s it.
“The way you play, you might run yourself into the ground as a forward chasing but once you’ve done your job to the best you can do, you have to be happy with yourself.
“It’s something that you kind of have to take in – you have to listen to the opinions but you don’t really. I kind of learned that nothing really matters outside of the camp, or outside of the team or group of players. What the public say to you, you just have to be strong mentally and kind of get on with it and know yourself what’s right.”
In Derek McGrath, Waterford’s young stars have a manager who will shield them from the criticism as best he can.
He probably knows that we are going to make mistakes when we go out, but he wants us to be the best we can be as players and as people as well. That’s important on the other side as well, to kind of enjoy it as well at the same time and not be totally shackled by everything and to just enjoy every aspect of it really.
“There’s times when you’d want to give it up alright, it’s just things aren’t going right for you. I enjoy every bit of it to be honest and it is tough, but you have to take the highs with the lows but I suppose the thing is, the big days are worth it. They are worth the hardship and they are worth the hard days.”
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