Earlier this year, Ryan O’Dwyer, formerly of Cashel King Cormacs, Tipperary, Kilmacud Crokes and Dublin, accepted an invitation to go hurling with the Dublin Masters.
He got two challenges matches in when disaster struck.
In the first game he went bananas against London. He scored 3-2 and the management decided to take him off. Hand on heart, he’d admit that he was showing off.
The second day against Kildare, they ran up a big score in the first half, and he was withdrawn at the break. The Lilywhites came back into matters in the second half, and they called for O’Dwyer, relaxing on the bench.
The tale he tells is one familiar to a lot of oul boys who have forgotten the purpose of a warm-up.
“I was sent back on and I went to make a run and tore my hamstring,” he says.
“And I never had a hamstring problem. I said I will never come off and come back on again. I was looking around wondering who had shot me. Ah, Jesus!! The most rotten thing ever.”
Has he kept himself in shape?
“No, I’ve done absolutely fuck all,” he laughs.
“I’ve turned into a lazy bollocks now, to be honest.”
*****
His interest in hurling knows no bounds.
Last year he managed Faughs to a senior B championship in Dublin.
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Before that, he spent a couple of seasons coaching the Down hurlers under Ronan Sheehan, an experience that he loved.
When it comes to the weekends, he has three children but still carves out the time needed to watch the games. All of them.
“If I am not at the game, I will watch the game that evening,” he says.
“Four or five games over the weekend? I’ll watch the four or five of them at some stage.”
He’s seen a lot of Dublin hurling over the last few years. One of the 2013 leaders when they had Anthony Daly in charge and winning their first Leinster title in 52 years, he tracks the evolution of the game.
Managing Dublin TU in the Fitzgibbon Cup. Laszlo Geczo / INPHO
Laszlo Geczo / INPHO / INPHO
At Parnell Park for the de facto Leinster semi-final between Dublin and Kilkenny, he notes how Kilkenny have fallen through the cracks, trying to adapt a new strategy and struggling with identity issues.
Dublin on the other hand, are clear and precise in what they do.
“I remember being asked once by a player who is playing for Dublin this weekend, what kind of ball I wanted in. And I said, ‘I don’t give a fuck, as long as it’s early,’” he says.
“I think that’s what Dublin have now. They are doing that short passing to get a platform, a zone where they can deliver that ball long. There are lads running in hard to pick up that break but at the same time, they are not one-dimensional.
“You see the likes of Brian Hayes and Fergal Whitely out around the middle of the field, Conor Donohoe, they are all running with the ball, drawing men, have support on the shoulder and they are a joy to see at the moment.”
He’s not being wise after the event. Heading in, he felt Kilkenny’s Juju could win them the game.
“I always compare them to the All Blacks because they have some games won before the game starts because of their history,” he says.
“Within five minutes I felt Dublin were going to win it. It could come down to a puck of the ball, but thought Dublin could do it by around five.
As a player for Kilmacud Crokes. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
“They had a speed that Kilkenny didn’t have. A cohesion. They were a stronger unit than Kilkenny and that was the difference between the sides.”
This present group have not won a Leinster title under Niall Ó Ceallacháin, but there have been signs that they are building something to last. Beating Kilkenny, Galway and Limerick in the last year shows that.
Asked to compare his group of Dublin hurlers with these, O’Dwyer says, “I could get shot by the lads I played with, but depth is the biggest factor between both.
“Not that this group is not physical, but I think we had some big, physical lads, the likes of Stephen Hiney, Conal Keaney, Liam Rushe who is still there.
“Not just Dublin, I think this is across the board, but the game has changed. Even in the last five years, the speed of hurling has developed so much and the ball is travelling so much faster.
“I know I spoke about Kilkenny staying still and getting left behind but it is getting faster. A score from 65 yards ten years ago was a brilliant score. Now it is a routine score.”
In a summer where the support for the Dublin senior football team has evaporated, O’Dwyer would love some more, well, love for the hurlers.
With 20,000 tickets for this Saturday’s Joe McDonagh Cup final and Dublin’s meeting with Galway in the Leinster final, the hope has to be that Croke Park houses some kind of atmosphere.
After returning post-Covid to play a little with his home club, Cashel King Cormacs, there is no man better placed to point out the cultural differences in Dublin and Tipperary hurling.
With Dublin manager Anthony Daly after his red card against Cork in 2013. Cathal Noonan / INPHO
Cathal Noonan / INPHO / INPHO
“Now, they have similar facilities. At the time, Dublin didn’t have one settled base. They were mixed between a few different places. But we had the same gear, looked after the same so it was not a case of one county being better taken care of,” he says.
“But the history that Tipperary have, Dublin don’t have that. And you are coming from a place in Tipp when you go down to the shop two minutes away, but you are an hour away because everyone wants to talk about hurling.
“Whereas up here, 99% of people don’t know you and the other 1% doesn’t care.
“And that was nice, because that pressure wasn’t on. That has its pros and cons as well because if you are in a match, you will throw your body on the line because it’s history, it’s family, everything it means. But you are also going to get ripped to bits that night from every armchair supporter.
“We never had any of that with Dublin. You could go out the night after a match and nobody really gave a shite. I liked that. That bit of anonymity.”
But that means something else.
“For all the Tipp lads though, it was a matter of life and death. Like a religion. Whereas with Dublin, I’m not saying it wasn’t like that for all the Dublin lads, but some.
“When you go to club level in Dublin, you see it. It is almost a social thing, rather than life and death.”
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That was something O’Dwyer added to the Dublin side when he played. He was a ferocious competitor, verging on the rash at times.
In the past, he described his mental preparation for games. It involved what disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong used to sneer at other riders who found it hard to ‘Get your hate on, man.’
“No matter what team I ever played against, I went out the same. There was one team I disliked more than anybody else.
“I said that thing about hating the opposition, but I was maybe thinking more of club level.
“I hated marking a lad that I knew well. I always hated that because any lad I marked, there was always a chance they were going to get hurt through my awkwardness. There wouldn’t be malice in it, just going full-blooded.
“But in my head, and I loved Tipp, but playing against Tipp, I would build up a narrative that I hated that individual. That this lad, I never got on with, although they could be a friend and texting in the week leading up to it.
“I still had a story in my head that we had an issue with each other. That he was with my sister. I’d make something up in my head.”
That also has to be balanced with the strategy-heavy element of today’s hurling?
“I think you can have all the structure you want, but I think it is a personal thing.
“I think you have a structured game but you have to motivate yourself. For me, that was my way of motivating myself. Like a boxer going into a fight. I don’t think that is out of the game, it is supplementing it, if anything.”
All that said, he’s looking forward to Saturday night, taking his place in the stand and roaring on The Dubs in a Leinster final. This team now? It can be whatever it wants, he believes.
“I think the sky is the limit. I really do.
“I don’t want to jinx it. But I think Dublin will win. They are at a different stage in their development. Galway will be a force to be reckoned with but I think Dublin are further along that line.”
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'I think the sky is the limit. I really do' - a new Dublin hurling era
HE JUST CAN’T shake the hurling habit.
Earlier this year, Ryan O’Dwyer, formerly of Cashel King Cormacs, Tipperary, Kilmacud Crokes and Dublin, accepted an invitation to go hurling with the Dublin Masters.
He got two challenges matches in when disaster struck.
In the first game he went bananas against London. He scored 3-2 and the management decided to take him off. Hand on heart, he’d admit that he was showing off.
The second day against Kildare, they ran up a big score in the first half, and he was withdrawn at the break. The Lilywhites came back into matters in the second half, and they called for O’Dwyer, relaxing on the bench.
The tale he tells is one familiar to a lot of oul boys who have forgotten the purpose of a warm-up.
“I was sent back on and I went to make a run and tore my hamstring,” he says.
“And I never had a hamstring problem. I said I will never come off and come back on again. I was looking around wondering who had shot me. Ah, Jesus!! The most rotten thing ever.”
Has he kept himself in shape?
“No, I’ve done absolutely fuck all,” he laughs.
“I’ve turned into a lazy bollocks now, to be honest.”
*****
His interest in hurling knows no bounds.
Last year he managed Faughs to a senior B championship in Dublin.
Before that, he spent a couple of seasons coaching the Down hurlers under Ronan Sheehan, an experience that he loved.
When it comes to the weekends, he has three children but still carves out the time needed to watch the games. All of them.
“If I am not at the game, I will watch the game that evening,” he says.
“Four or five games over the weekend? I’ll watch the four or five of them at some stage.”
He’s seen a lot of Dublin hurling over the last few years. One of the 2013 leaders when they had Anthony Daly in charge and winning their first Leinster title in 52 years, he tracks the evolution of the game.
At Parnell Park for the de facto Leinster semi-final between Dublin and Kilkenny, he notes how Kilkenny have fallen through the cracks, trying to adapt a new strategy and struggling with identity issues.
Dublin on the other hand, are clear and precise in what they do.
“I remember being asked once by a player who is playing for Dublin this weekend, what kind of ball I wanted in. And I said, ‘I don’t give a fuck, as long as it’s early,’” he says.
“I think that’s what Dublin have now. They are doing that short passing to get a platform, a zone where they can deliver that ball long. There are lads running in hard to pick up that break but at the same time, they are not one-dimensional.
“You see the likes of Brian Hayes and Fergal Whitely out around the middle of the field, Conor Donohoe, they are all running with the ball, drawing men, have support on the shoulder and they are a joy to see at the moment.”
He’s not being wise after the event. Heading in, he felt Kilkenny’s Juju could win them the game.
“I always compare them to the All Blacks because they have some games won before the game starts because of their history,” he says.
“Within five minutes I felt Dublin were going to win it. It could come down to a puck of the ball, but thought Dublin could do it by around five.
“They had a speed that Kilkenny didn’t have. A cohesion. They were a stronger unit than Kilkenny and that was the difference between the sides.”
This present group have not won a Leinster title under Niall Ó Ceallacháin, but there have been signs that they are building something to last. Beating Kilkenny, Galway and Limerick in the last year shows that.
Asked to compare his group of Dublin hurlers with these, O’Dwyer says, “I could get shot by the lads I played with, but depth is the biggest factor between both.
“Not that this group is not physical, but I think we had some big, physical lads, the likes of Stephen Hiney, Conal Keaney, Liam Rushe who is still there.
“Not just Dublin, I think this is across the board, but the game has changed. Even in the last five years, the speed of hurling has developed so much and the ball is travelling so much faster.
In a summer where the support for the Dublin senior football team has evaporated, O’Dwyer would love some more, well, love for the hurlers.
With 20,000 tickets for this Saturday’s Joe McDonagh Cup final and Dublin’s meeting with Galway in the Leinster final, the hope has to be that Croke Park houses some kind of atmosphere.
After returning post-Covid to play a little with his home club, Cashel King Cormacs, there is no man better placed to point out the cultural differences in Dublin and Tipperary hurling.
“Now, they have similar facilities. At the time, Dublin didn’t have one settled base. They were mixed between a few different places. But we had the same gear, looked after the same so it was not a case of one county being better taken care of,” he says.
“But the history that Tipperary have, Dublin don’t have that. And you are coming from a place in Tipp when you go down to the shop two minutes away, but you are an hour away because everyone wants to talk about hurling.
“Whereas up here, 99% of people don’t know you and the other 1% doesn’t care.
“And that was nice, because that pressure wasn’t on. That has its pros and cons as well because if you are in a match, you will throw your body on the line because it’s history, it’s family, everything it means. But you are also going to get ripped to bits that night from every armchair supporter.
“We never had any of that with Dublin. You could go out the night after a match and nobody really gave a shite. I liked that. That bit of anonymity.”
But that means something else.
“For all the Tipp lads though, it was a matter of life and death. Like a religion. Whereas with Dublin, I’m not saying it wasn’t like that for all the Dublin lads, but some.
“When you go to club level in Dublin, you see it. It is almost a social thing, rather than life and death.”
That was something O’Dwyer added to the Dublin side when he played. He was a ferocious competitor, verging on the rash at times.
In the past, he described his mental preparation for games. It involved what disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong used to sneer at other riders who found it hard to ‘Get your hate on, man.’
“No matter what team I ever played against, I went out the same. There was one team I disliked more than anybody else.
“I said that thing about hating the opposition, but I was maybe thinking more of club level.
“I hated marking a lad that I knew well. I always hated that because any lad I marked, there was always a chance they were going to get hurt through my awkwardness. There wouldn’t be malice in it, just going full-blooded.
“But in my head, and I loved Tipp, but playing against Tipp, I would build up a narrative that I hated that individual. That this lad, I never got on with, although they could be a friend and texting in the week leading up to it.
That also has to be balanced with the strategy-heavy element of today’s hurling?
“I think you can have all the structure you want, but I think it is a personal thing.
“I think you have a structured game but you have to motivate yourself. For me, that was my way of motivating myself. Like a boxer going into a fight. I don’t think that is out of the game, it is supplementing it, if anything.”
All that said, he’s looking forward to Saturday night, taking his place in the stand and roaring on The Dubs in a Leinster final. This team now? It can be whatever it wants, he believes.
“I think the sky is the limit. I really do.
“I don’t want to jinx it. But I think Dublin will win. They are at a different stage in their development. Galway will be a force to be reckoned with but I think Dublin are further along that line.”
*****
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GAA Hurling Leinster Final Ryan O'Dwyer TIPP DUB