EAM FOR MORE
Egan: O’shea is thinking about hurling all the time.. his brain is in overdrive
A FEW weeks before Christmas, a text landed on Darragh Egan’s phone from, of all places, The Gabba in Brisbane.
In seeing out the last of his duties before retiring as a professor of economics at University of Galway, Eamon O’shea was required to travel to Australia. While there, he decided to take in a cricket team in training.
Although he was involved with Tipperary as recently as 2021 alongside Egan, O’shea was keen to make up whatever ground he had missed – and get ahead of the posse.
“He was talking about technique and how we need to focus a bit more on coaching the technique in hurling and so on, looking at cricket players and how they approach the ball and what their footwork is like,” says Egan.
“His brain is in overdrive, constantly thinking about hurling and imparting that knowledge on any player, whether it’s Galway, Tipp, whoever, it’s going to benefit the team he’s involved with.”
Although Egan points out that O’shea’s blood “runs black and white for Kilruane first of all and then he runs blue and gold for Tipperary”, it was probably inevitable that he would get involved with Galway at some point.
Just retired, a long-time resident in Salthill and now seeing his son, Donal, come to the fore with the county team, it was probably now or never.
“From his front door you could puck a ball down to the goals in Pearse Stadium, that’s how close he lives to the stadium,” said Egan. “He had a very high-powered job and he was a very significant member of the economics department in NUI Galway so he’s retired and he knew that was on the horizon and his appetite to deal in high level hurling is second to none.
“I remember being on the line down in Moyle Rovers when I was over Tipp 16s. He had a bit-part involvement in
the Galway 16s at that time and Donal was on the squad so following that line of coaching, it was probably inevitable that he’d have some input into the Galway set up at some stage.”
Some, like Peter Canavan, have ruled out being involved with a senior county team that their son is involved with, though if it was an obstacle for O’shea, it’s one that he’s obviously cleared.
“Eamon is absolutely clear on where Donal is at, how he’s progressing, delighted with his progression,” says Egan.
“Donal hurling with UCD in the Fitzgibbon would have been one stepping stone, breaking onto Henry’s squad is another stepping stone and Eamon knows that Donal is going to make it or he’s not and he’s so young now, I’d say he’s just delighted to see his progression and I don’t think it will be a barrier for Eamon.”
It wasn’t until Liam Sheedy added O’shea (left, with Sheedy and Michael Ryan) to his Tipp management team in late 2007 that he became known to a wider audience but, having worked under him in college before that, Egan was acutely aware of his qualities.
“He was the main reason I did an extra year in NUIG,” he says.
And having managed and coached extensively against Galway with Wexford and Tipperary in recent years, he’s intrigued by the influence that
O’shea will wield over them.
“Eamon has this kind of a spell that he puts on forwards that they buy into him. It’s well spoken about, Lar Corbett and Seamus Callanan and Eoin Kelly and some of the great Tipp forwards down the years, Bubbles, they speak a lot about Eamon and the influence he had on them.
“I think that will be no different in Galway and I suppose I’m excited to see, as long as it’s not at Tipp’s expense, how some of the Galway forwards perform this year having dealt with Eamon because we know how invaluable he was to Tipp in the last decade or so.
“I know Eamon worked a bit with Conor Whelan over the last few years and I’d say, even though he’s one of the best forwards in the game, we could even see a different side to Conor again this year, having a new coach over him.” Tomorrow, O’shea is part of the Galway management team going to Thurles to take on his native county.
Egan (left) adds: “I don’t think much needs to be made of the Tipp-galway thing. It’s just as his work has changed, this chance became apparent and I suppose it’s his desire to see can he improve Galway but also, everyone is trying to catch Limerick.
“I have no doubt – he wouldn’t say it – that burning inside in him, he’d love to be involved in a team that has a proper cut off Limerick.”
It wouldn’t be the first five-in-a-row that he helped to derail.