CHAMPIONSHIP’S SOCCER TANG HAS HARTE’S BELLY RUMBLING
AIDAN HARTE is heading to Anfield this weekend, with the ardent Liverpool supporter hoping that the Merseyside derby will take his mind off Gort losing last Sunday’s Galway SHC final to Liam Mellows. However, the All Ireland winning defender also reckons that the tribal nature of this weekend’s fare in Liverpool will give him a taste of what the Hurling Championship will look and feel like from next year onwards. With teams playing four games in five weeks under the new format — two home and two away — there will be a sense of not being able to catch your breath. ‘I am definitely excited by the prospect of playing Championship games in Pearse Stadium,’ Harte said. ‘We play Kilkenny at home in the second game, our first home game. Can you imagine Salthill on a Saturday evening or Sunday afternoon during the summer, 30,000 people in Pearse Stadium with Kilkenny coming to town, it will be a great buzz. ‘This is what you want as a player, these great days to look back on. And there is a kinda soccer element to the whole Championship, rolling games, week in and week out, in front of your own fans and then going to Wexford Park, which will be a huge challenge. Even now in December, it is something that gets the belly rumbling, just thinking about it.’ As a teacher in Edenderry and living in Athlone, the defender has managed to shield himself from some of the madness of recent months as Galway celebrated their first All-Ireland title in 29 years. But their manager Micheál Donoghue is already looking ahead to 2018 and how the Tribesmen can build on their allconquering 2017 when they swept all before them. Given that the team is only heading out on its holiday to Mexico over the New Year, the All-Ireland champions may be playing catch-up on some of their rivals early in the season but Harte says the players will be
looking after themselves even in the close-season. ‘The way it has gone over the years, even though the game is amateur, it still has a professional element. Even at this time of the year, nobody goes two or three days without doing a gym session or doing some ball work,’ Harte added. ‘It is continuous, that is just the way it is. I know myself in two or three years’ time, or even sooner if Micheál decides, it could all be over. So you have to try to make the most of it when you can and that means getting back to peak fitness quickly once we go back training in January.’ Harte believes that the Tribesmen got the rub of the green this year, especially in terms of injury, with only Paul Killeen ruled out with a cruciate ligament injury, and will need it again next year to retain Liam MacCarthy. ‘We were lucky this year that bar Paul’s bad knee injury, we didn’t pick up a lot of injuries and things like Joe’s point here against Tipperary, can you train for things like that? It was a slice of luck, and we’ll need that again next year.’