AGB ready for mammoth task

AGB has joint captains this season in the shape of club and county legend Ciaran Hyland and teaktough full-back James Tyrrell and it is a system that seems to be working out very well for Damien Redmond’s men with Tyrrell being the quiet, ‘good cop’ type individual and Hyland letting rip when needs be and showing huge leadership when required.

According to Hyland himself, his few words at half-time in the Blessington game last weekend when they were in all sorts of trouble, trailing by 0-8 to 0-2 after not playing at all in the opening half, seemed to have done the trick.

Hyland says that the momentum completely changed in the second half.

‘I think momentum had a lot to do with it. They got a really good start and they just kept that momentum going for the full half. They seemed to be on top, on top, on top,’ he began.

‘When we came out in the second half they were well up, but we got a few scores and it was just like the momentum shifted and all of a sudden, the ball was in our court and they found it hard to get out of their half. It was all momentum. For maybe 15 or 20 minutes of the game they didn’t score.

‘I just got angry. I can rant and rave a bit, but I think this was more from the heart. I really got angry at the fact that we’ve done everything all year, we’ve worked hard, we’ve played well in matches and we literally didn’t turn up for the first half. It was like we were getting bullied. We were shell-shocked.

‘I just thought that after the year that was in it, having done so well, that we didn’t turn up. I said to the lads that we were like a group of 16-year-olds against men out there. I just said to them that Arklow hasn’t been in a Senior final in 58 years, and we have the chance, 30 minutes of football, we’re only two kicks of the ball away, we’re still in the game. But I said it’s 58 years and the group of lads in this dressing room have the chance to put that right. And that was it. It was a bit more relaxed. It wasn’t just me ranting and raving like usual, it was more relaxed, and I think the lads took it on board because of a few of them said it to me afterwards that the hair stood up a little bit. When you sit down and think about it, 30 minutes of football can change a whole season and history. And then Damo came in and everybody listened, and the hairdryer was turned on,’ he added.

We meet the lads in the Arklow Bay Hotel. Tyrrell featured in the replay having been cleared of his red card from the first game. Hyland, not long back from an injury, returned to action in that first game foir the first time in four months. AGB will need both men in thriving form come the county final in Sunday.

James Tyrrell says that the big thing for AGB this year is the quality they can introduce off the bench which turned both the first game and the replay against Mick Murray’s Blessingon.

‘That’s been a massive thing this year, when Damien calls on subs to make a difference. The likes of Darragh Culeton, Daire McBride, Tiernan McBride, lads who could easily put their head in the ground and sulk are coming on and making a massive difference,’ said the defender.

Ciaran Hyland agrees.

‘It makes some difference to a team when you trust the lads coming on. Years before we had a goof 16 or 17 but this team, we have five or six lads who can come in and slot into any position and it nearly makes the team stronger near the end of a game,’ said the former loyal servant of Wicklow county football.

Hyland agrees with manager Damien Redmond in his assessment of the team’s perfromances this year as consistent and he saus that the maturity of the younger players and the bond between younger and older has been massive.

‘We’ve kind of been consistent. We’ve turned it on in patches. It’s kind of even better if you can get through game sand not play brilliantly and get through the game and win, than, obviously, playing brilliantly and losing the game by a point. We’ll take that.

‘I think lads have matured a but, they have the belief. They are where they are and that’s where they should be. They are up in the top three or four teams in the county. Before when you came up against the Rathnews and Pat’s you thought, ‘Ah, these are the top lads’, but this year it’s different. I just believe that the lads believe that they belong at the top,’ he said.

‘There seems to be a really good bond. Some of the lads are 19 and 20 and then there’s us at 37 or 38, and it doesn’t really matter. I could be slagging one of the young lads and then he could be slagging me over grey hair or whatever. There’s a good team bond, there’s no divide,’ added Hyland.

Hyland played the first game against Kiltegan but was forced off with a hamstring injury. He endured a tough rehab programme but is delighted to be back now and hopes that all will stay well for the big game on Sunday.

‘I got the first game. I’d had a hamstring problem before I tore it. I tore the hamstring before and I got back from it and then the first game against Kiltegan and I was moving fairly well, I felt good and then it jarred again and I had to come off and the physio sent me up for an MRI and I had a grade 2 in my hamstring and a grade 2 in the tendon. I knew the hamstring was a six-week job, but they said the tendon was a 10-week thing and that brought me right up to the match (Blessington), the day of the first Blessington game.

‘In fairness, the physio gave me a rehab programme, and it was tough, a 12-week programme. It held up in the Blessington game, 80 minutes. I was delighted to get back. I hate being out. You’re training and you’re standing there.

‘When you look at the St Patrick’s team on paper, they are the favourites and they do look a stronger team, and when you go through the team the majority of the players are either current county teams or ex county players so they have a vast amount of players that are very, very good. It is going to be deserve to be a mammoth task to try and get over them but we know what we are up against but we have a bit of momentum and we’ll go in believing that we can win, you have to go in with that mentality, but we’re not taking t in any way for granted. We won’t fear them, but we know how good they are,’ he said.

Hyland says that while AGB are the underdogs going into this battle, it’s a two-horse race and that the pressure is off Damien Redmond’s side.

‘The stats are there, we’re the underdogs. Pat’s have been there and done it, so the pressure is slightly off. We just want to go out and put on a performance. And at the end of the day it’s going to come dow to a 50-50 game, it’s a two-horse race, and hopefully after 60 minutes we’ll have done enough,’ he said.