WHEN WILLIE HYLAND handed in his gun and badge for Laois in 2016, he hardly expected to be back hurling in Croke Park five years later.
He was just 28 when he was forced into inter-county retirement due to persistent hip injuries, unable to sustain the level of training required at the top level.
The long-serving player made his debut for the O’Moore County as a 17-year-old in 2006, but never played senior championship hurling on Jones’ Road with his county – though he did line-out there for Ireland in the Shinty series against Scotland in 2010.
While it will be a rare day out for Hyland in Croke Park, he played alongside some top class talent on a star-studded Fitzgibbon Cup team during his days studying in LIT.
In a side by Davy Fitzgerald, Hyland can consider Seamus Callanan and Joe Canning as former team-mates, both of whom played in headquarters more times than they can remember.
So Sunday’s Leinster final outing against Ballyhale Shamrocks will be a novel experience for both the 33-year-old and his club Clough-Ballacolla, who’ll appear there for the first time.
“Ah sure you couldn’t really write it to be honest,” he smiles. “We had a difficult 18 months before that when we were waiting for county finals to be played and were dealing with lockdowns and whatnot.
“To win the ’20 final back in August, follow it up with the ’21 final and have our two Leinster wins, it has been unbelievable. It’s a great journey that we’ve been on. We don’t want it to finish either.”
Clough-Ballacolla landed a delayed 2020 county title in August, retained it in November before achieving the club’s first ever win in Leinster by beating Wexford champions Raparees.
Last Saturday’s defeat of Kilmacud Crokes, who dwarf the Laois parish in terms of numbers, sent shockwaves around the province.
“We’re a very small, rural area. We have 270 members in the club. To see our little area on national TV is a very, very proud day for all of us. To go on and win the last two games has been brilliant.
“We have people messaging us from all over the country and around the world to say how proud they are of us – people that are from Clough-Ballacolla that have left the area. It’s been an amazing time for us.
“I’m only a passenger on this team now, I’m getting on,” Hyland modestly continues.
“I’m delighted to be out there. But I get more of a buzz from seeing family, friends and neighbours in Croke Park. To see our people go to Croke Park on Leinster final day is just a hugely proud moment for me and all the lads.
“Every GAA club has die-hards, we have some die-hards who probably have never been past the Red Cow. So to see everyone going to Croke Park is just an amazing feeling for everybody.
“I get more of a buzz out of that than anything, it’s not about me or anybody else playing in Croke Park. It’s our community and being able to make everybody in the parish proud. I think everybody is going on Sunday so it’s a great occasion.”
Hyland finished up as Laois’ second-highest ever scorer having posted an incredible 21-470 in 122 competitive games. He’d have soldered on longer had his body allowed.
The lesser demands of club hurling has allowed him extend his playing career despite having “arthritis in both hips and a torn cartilage”.
“In my last year with Laois in 2016 my range of movement was being impinged,” he explains. “Basically what happens is that after a match or a tough training session some pain, stiffness, and soreness comes into play.
“So you can’t do the same amount of training that other guys can do. And at inter-county level the level has gone so high that you need to be nearly doing something every day and I just couldn’t do that.
“The final straw was a training camp we were on in Cork at Fota Island. We did about eight get togethers over the couple of days. I could only do two of them. Now you can say, okay, that’s fine, let’s manage his injury.
“But the other side of the thing is that every other county, if you’re marking a fella he’s at a different level to you because you simply can’t train as much as he can.
“Whereas at club level I’ve been lucky. I mightn’t train as much as the rest of the lads, but if they go training I might go on the bike for an hour or something. I’d be very disciplined in regard to minding myself with flexibility work and recovery work and pool sessions and that.
“Obviously club level is less strenuous than inter-county so that’s the reason. You can ask the lads, I don’t be at the field as much as they are but they know the story with me.
“Whereas at inter-county you’re just wasting your time if you can’t do the same training as the rest of the lads.”
Ballyhale Shamrocks have long been the aristocrats of Leinster hurling, but they hold no fear for the Laois champions this weekend, who revel in their underdog status.
“There’s no fear factor,” Hyland declares. “It’s very simple on Sunday, we have to bring the same intensity that we brought to Kilmacud Crokes and we’ll have to improve as well. We made some mistakes on Saturday night.
“We were dropping an awful lot of ball short into the goalie’s hand, we had a few wides, we had poor decision making at times. We made up for it with our heart, want and desire but we’re going to need more than that on Sunday. We’re well aware of that.”
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