DIFFERENT TIMES
Waterford’s Paul Flynn recalls his drug-test experience with Al Guy
Ex-Déise star Paul Flynn recalls his own experience of the GAA’s initial foray into anti-doping measures
EVEN in lockdown, Bruce Springsteen continues to provide the soundtrack to Paul Flynn’s life. A die-hard fan, he has the back catalogue for company, though it comes with a gentle warning. ‘You’ve got to pick your albums carefully. If you listen to Springsteen during hard times… you wouldn’t be listening to Darkness on the Edge of Town or you’d be on edge. Without sounding corny, he has been a huge part of my life for 30 years, through college and work and up and down to training.’
When ‘The Boss’ himself is getting a quarantine haircut from his wife, you know the world is in a strange place.
Flynn’s capacity to make a ball talk has never been limited to hurling. The summer weather these past few weeks has only made him think wistfully of being out on the course at Tramore Golf Club where his eye for a shot is such that he plays off plus one.
‘I played off plus two for a while. Yeah, the good old days!’
Asked a few years back for his favourite fourball, he listed Phil Mickelson and Fred Couples – along with his favourite troubadour of course.
Like so many, he has been sucked into watching classic matches to pass the time. Three Sundays ago, he plonked himself down at home and tuned in to RTÉ to watch the iconic 2004 Munster final back for the first time.
This is the game forever associated with one sublime piece of skill, that has since spawned a generation of imitators.
The ‘dipper’. A free from 35 yards that had such wristy topspin that it deceived goalkeeper Dónal Óg Cusack and a clan of Cork defenders including Diarmuid ‘The Rock’ O’Sullivan and whizzed into the top corner of the net.
One of the most outrageous pieces of skill in the competition’s history. And what a time to do it as well – that score put Waterford 3-12 to 1-17 ahead, the first time Justin McCarthy’s team lead in the match.
They won by one.
‘My goodness me, only Paul Flynn could think of it!’ gushed RTÉ commentator Ger Canning. ‘Amazingly, Cork were expecting him to lob it over. There’s where it finished. Top right-hand corner!’
Not that he was getting much credit at home. His daughter Rachel (13) and son Matthew (11) made for a tough audience.
‘I’d never actually watched the match before — I know that’s hard to believe. I sat down with the kids and sure I was getting slagged. They gave me an awful time. Ah, it was good fun. They were commenting on all the bad misses.
‘I’d forgotten a lot of it to be honest. I was shocked — there were two wides in particular I had completely forgotten about.
A friend of mine from Cork texted me during it and said, “Jesus, if ye had lost that one, you would have been killed!” Which puts a different perspective on it, 16 years later.’
Instead, it was that logic-defying strike — one of such nerveless bravado that carried the day — a singular strike in keeping with a singular player.
That Sunday he posted a framed photo of the final scoreline that hangs on the wall.
Before all of that came another breakthrough day against Cork in 2002 — a Munster semi-final duel with a different type of unscripted twist. His memory was jogged when he read the story this past week of Carlow footballer Ray Walker, banned for four years after failing an out-of-competition drug test carried out under the auspices of
Sport Ireland.
The day Flynn crossed paths with Al Guy, the Sports Council drug tester and nemesis of fallen Olympian Michelle Smith. The one day in a 15-year career that spanned three Munster titles, a National League, an All-Star, and his status as Waterford’s all-time Championship scorer, when Flynn’s name came up in a blind draw for testing – along with teammate Brian Flannery.
And one that prompted chaotic scenes when the Waterford dressing room door was closed on the testers.
IT’S worth rewinding a little bit. To when Justin McCarthy’s first summer in charge threatened to unravel before it began. Flynn had flown to New York after a turbulent League and threatened to cut his losses there and then.
‘I took off. Things weren’t going so well. A couple of lads had left the panel. Cork went on strike and we played them then, I think Ken [McGrath] was injured that day. Sure we were only going up to fulfil the game really.
‘It went well for us. We hung in, hung in. Then Tony [Browne] hit a delivery from out the field that on a wet day skidded into the net. It kept us going. Ken came on and got the winning score. And then you’re in a Munster final and Tipperary are the reigning All-Ireland champions.’
Following the pitch invasion and the euphoria of the county’s first Championship win in 13 years over the old enemy, Flynn and Flannery would be the guinea pigs in the new anti-doping code that the GAA at the time was only getting its head around after adopting in 2001.
‘We were told that Wednesday night. Dr Tom Higgins came in that Wednesday night, said, “Oh by the way, there is a new drug-testing thing from Croke Park — here’s the leaflet, have a read of it. Anyone who is on steroids for asthma or anything, I’ll write a letter.
‘That was it. I was on Ventolin at the time. So the match came and went and we won. The next thing we had this fella in the dressing room — Al Guy comes in.
‘They had a blind draw where they pull the numbers out. Sure it was all new to us. We were dehydrated. We said, “No, go away, we’re not doing it”. And the GPA (Gaelic Players Association) was starting to kick-off around that time… “We’re not doing it”.
Cork’s renowned knowledge of the rule book and the potential repercussions for Waterford’s result standing helped focus minds.
‘The next thing, it was decided we’d better do it.
‘So he [Guy] followed us down to one of the hotels in Thurles. Maybe two hours after the match he got his sample. Obviously, we were clean. That was the introduction we had to the Sports Council anti-doping programme.’
Amidst the confusion, did anyone wonder if there would be repercussions for not adhering to the guidelines?
‘There’s no doubt in my mind that there was nobody at that time taking anything they shouldn’t have been. It would have been very, very easy for someone to get caught out because coffee, alcohol, certain cough bottles we just didn’t know…
‘If someone was to be caught out… to be the first GAA player caught on drugs would be a label you wouldn’t want.’
How did it play out for Flannery and Flynn?
‘The two of us were informed. As a group then, we just said, “No, we’re not doing it”. As I said, the GPA were just kicking off. But then, the powers that be, maybe the
Munster Council chairman might have said to our chairperson, “You’d better do it because you mightn’t know what would happen”.
‘I wouldn’t think that the Munster Council would give a match to another team just because a couple of lads didn’t comply but… you just don’t know.
‘It’s still grey enough. I read of the lad from Carlow (Ray Walker) who said he didn’t do anything wrong and he’s after getting a four-year ban.’
Waterford were nearly the test case in a way. he was familiar with the name Al Guy, the same tester who collared swimmer Smith.
‘I knew the name alright. He was pretty famous for that.’
Flynn, who scored a dozen points and was swept up in the emotion of the edge-of-seat 1-16 to 1-15 victory, admits it was a real culture shock for players to try and get their heads around the new testing process.
‘Sure it never happened before. You had to be naked from your knees up to your torso, your shoulders. It did feel like an invasion of privacy. Or just something that was very odd. It was the only time I was unlucky enough to be pulled out of the blind draw – a bit like the blind draw FIFA had for Maradona in 1994. Look, I’m sure it’s a bit more sophisticated now and players are better educated on what’s acceptable and what’s not acceptable.’
Walker (right) received his fouryear ban after his sample showed trace of meldonium, the same drug associated with the treatment of heart complaints that saw tennis star Maria Sharapova banned. It’s on the World Anti-Doping Agency’s prohibited list for its ability to increase athletic performance.
Flynn is sure about one thing: the anti-doping programme is vital to the integrity of sport, including Gaelic games.
‘The way people treat inter-county sport, it’s near on full-time. It has to be part of it. It would be sad to think that there is people going that far, or crossing the line.
‘Of course, you can be a victim of your own inexperience, or lack of knowledge. But that goes along the Ventolin route or inhalers.’
Flynn recalls how he was asthmatic playing hurling.
‘I remember, going back, you’d nearly puff on the inhaler out of nervousness.
‘It wouldn’t be going in your mouth at all — it could be flying anywhere. You’d be holding your breath, thinking I didn’t get anything there, sure I’ll have another puff.
‘I used to do that on the pitch — have it in a sock before the match starts.
‘Is that different then to taking a steroid? If the test shows that you are over, it’s not different. But the intention is different.
‘If they are going to give a punishment out for drug testing, for failing a drug test, it should be a serious one I suppose, something that will stop other fellas from doing it. I’ve total sympathy for someone who is just inexperienced, or doesn’t know the stuff.’
In 2008, Kerry footballer Aidan O’Mahony became the first Gaelic player to fail a drug test but was cleared of any ban when it was accepted that the high level of salbutamol in his system was due to using an asthma inhaler for medical purposes only.
‘It could have a lot of implications on your work or social life,’ accepts Flynn. ‘It is a serious issue.’
WATCHING the re-run of the 2004 Munster final, his logic-defying strike came at a time in the second half when Waterford were on the ropes after John Mullane’s straight red card. While there was a sense of shock at the nerve of his strike, turns out it wasn’t the first time Flynn tried to nail a topspin free to the net.
‘A League game against Tipperary when it hit the bar and came out. I think we had to win to get to the League final or semi-final. We Were two points down.
‘Then in ’01 against Limerick [Munster semi-final]. I think we got off to a great start, conceded a heap of goals. In the dying minutes of that I tried it, when it hit the bar and went over.’
He explains why it crossed his mind in the 2004 Munster final.
‘The sliotar had changed dramatically in 2003 where the first version of the rubber ball appeared and starting moving all over the place. You could make the ball turn a bit, or dip a bit, easier than you could with the big rims.’
The ‘dipper’ is part of Flynn’s rich legacy.
Only last February, Carlow IT goalkeeper Enda Rowland was trying a version of same in the dying moments of the Fitzgibbon Cup final against UCC, only to see his effort deflected over the bar.
So did he ever think it would leave such a lasting impression?
‘No,’ though he admits his son has a grá for dead-ball skills in a different code.
‘He is obsessed with YouTube and players taking free-kicks. If you see the soccer ball and the way it moves. So it has moved on.’
Matthew hurls with his father’s club Ballygunner while Rachel plays camogie for Gailltír.
It’s the next generation of stars they are trying to imitate rather than their father’s signature move. ‘No. That wouldn’t be cool enough. Whatever the latest challenge is on Twitter or online.’ One thing he found is that the 2004 Munster final stands up to the toughest scrutiny — namely, the passing of time.
‘I watched the 1990 final the Sunday before. I remember watching it as a kid and it was unbelievable. That one, I felt aged a bit — not being disrespectful.
‘When you watch the Munster final of ’04, a lot of people have commented that it still does hold true, and it does reflect well on where hurling was at the time and the state of the game.’
Some things don’t go out of fashion.
‘YOU CAN BE A VICTIM OF YOUR OWN LACK OF KNOWLEDGE’