ONCE IS NOT ENOUGH
Séamus Callanan bemoans the fact that he’s still waiting to add to the All-Ireland medal he won with Tipperary six years ago
ON AN afternoon when the elements were borrowed from a biblical scene, Seamus Callanan lit up the gloom at Semple Stadium with a flash of the burgeoning talent that carries ‘AllStar’ in brackets beside his name. He wasn’t showing off — who would in a Munster Championship quarter-final, especially with Cork in opposition? Instead, he was just playing the game as he knows it — natural, instinctive, with feeling.
Fifteen minutes in, wing-forward Seán Curran sent a diagonal ball from under the Kinnane Stand in his direction. Under the watchful eye of William Egan, trialled in the experimental and ill-fated role as sweeper to protect against the goal threat of the 6’3” full-forward, Callanan watches the ball fizz in his direction and makes the next move in his head before anyone else, cushioning the sliotar off his stick straight into the hand of John McGrath who, on a looping run around him, fired over. It will be harder to find a sweeter score before the end of September.
A minute earlier, Callanan took a point from an acute angle on the left touchline, after bouncing off marker Damien Cahalane to win possession, the iron fist to go with the velvet glove.
In his prime and his pomp at 27, it’s easy to forget there was a time when he wasn’t an automatic pick, when doubts lingered over his capacity to turn potential into achievement. Current selector Declan Fanning recently name-checked his former team-mate for a stirring speech made prior to the 2010 All-Ireland final, when Callanan had been left out of the starting 15 to face Kilkenny.
‘When you’re part of something, you can’t always be the main man,’ Callanan says simply. ‘It wasn’t an act. I had prepared very hard, I had trained very hard and I was in good form. I just felt I had a lot done and I was ready to start. I just wanted to let them know I was ready. That the lads not starting were fully supportive. You need to buy into it. To be successful, you need everyone buying into it. You can’t have subs bringing negativity.’
According to Fanning, the rest of the team picked up on Callanan’s sentiments. When his moment came in the final, he was ready.
‘You’re down on the sideline, close to the pitch, getting the feel off the crowd. I remember Noel McGrath got his goal just as I was warming up. You feel a lift off all of that. (I was) In a good place, just wanting to be part of it.
‘Liam [Sheedy] just had a word or two in your ear. Just tell you your job. The work is done at that stage. If you’re in Croke Park on All-Ireland day with a chance to come on, it’s hard not to be in a good space.’
Lar Corbett stole the headlines that day with his three goals but Callanan’s contribution was crucial, hitting two points straight after his introduction to drive Tipperary on.
Nobody thought that would be the senior team’s last day of days as far as September was concerned.
The feeling at the final whistle? ‘Amazing. Everything you dreamed of, (it’s) why you give your whole year, risk your whole life really — your social life, your friends. You see nobody really all year, only your team-mates and your family. It’s an absolutely massive commitment but what you get out of it is amazing. It’s being able to share it with people who you know would die for you.
‘Being able to bring the cup home to your family. They know what it means to you, the sacrifices you put in.’
Speaking at the recent launch of the Elverys Intersport #BringTheColour Campaign, he agrees with the perception that one All-Ireland doesn’t do full justice to the talent at Tipperary’s disposal since.
‘It’s never enough. The same year in 2010 we won the Under 21 All-Ireland. So the expectation would have been that we’d win a lot more, that we’d have a couple of All-Irelands put together. Realistically, there have been great teams too along the way.
‘Any year you’re trying to compete, you need a bit of luck, too. Hopefully we’ll get it soon.’
In 2014, that missing ‘bit of luck’ took the form of a John O’Dwyer free that Hawk-Eye ruled as a ‘miss’ in the very last act of the drawn final, depriving Tipperary of that followup All-Ireland. It was a game for the ages, in every sense. Kilkenny 3-22 Tipperary 1-28. A total of 54 scores, a record in an All-Ireland final.
No more than the 2009 All-Ireland final — another epic against Kilkenny — a part of him felt proud to have been a part of two truly great deciders.
‘Losing them was heart-breaking, but to be part of them and to be able to get yourself to play to that level on the day, on the biggest stage of them all is something you can take great confidence out of, great heart out of. But ultimately, the result is everything.’
After the 2014 final replay, Hurler of the Year Richie Hogan insisted that the game hadn’t hit its glass ceiling, that the bar could be moved even higher. Callanan feels the same way.
‘I think there’s another level in it. Some would say that we hit certain levels that wouldn’t be able to be achieved again.
‘If you ask players who played those days, they’d say there is 10 things about their performance they’d prefer to be better. Every individual is constantly trying to improve, can see flaws in their game. More flaws
The feeling at the final whistle? It was everything you dreamed of
than any journalist or anyone else can see.
‘Everyone wants to improve and be better every year. If everyone is working towards that goal, then the game is going to improve.
In last year’s Munster semi-final against Limerick in the Gaelic Grounds, he torched Richie McCarthy and the Limerick full-back line for 2-2 from play; Limerick, no doubt, will have better laid plans for him at Thurles this afternoon.
While he is no fan of the sweeper system saying it ‘spoils open hurling… we don’t play that way and never will,’ he’s more than aware the goal scoring statistics are dropping due to defensive game plans.
The man who coached him at DromInch all the way up, former National Hurling Co-Ordinator Paudie Butler, suggested in this paper that a move to an 80-minute game would lead to more goals as teams tire and the game opens up.
Callanan sees logic in the thinking. ‘It’s very hard to keep a physicality and intensity up for so long. Whereas we train hard enough to try and get to that level, you’d often see a last-minute goal due to a lack of concentration or tiredness.
‘There is probably merit in what he’s saying alright but at this stage, I’ve enough with 70!’
Overall, while there has been plenty of hand-wringing over the quality on offer so far in Championship 2016, he feels the game has never been in a better place. ‘The standard of hurling at the moment, the individual skill levels of players is phenomenal. And that’s through every county, not just the Kilkennys.
‘Look at Westmeath beating Kilkenny at under 21 level. There’s a shortening of the gap. A lot more teams that can be competitive.
‘There’s a lot of really fantastic hurlers out there at the moment. We’re lucky to be part of it.’
It’s very hard to keep the intensity and physicality up for so long...