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Hurley set for return from injury
AS Brian Hurley posed in a lifeboat that was plonked in surreal fashion inside Croke Park stadium, it was easy to use it as a metaphor for Cork GAA right now.
The senior football team have already been holed below the waterline twice in Division 2 — first by Kildare in Newbridge and then by Clare in Ennis last Sunday, the latter an event in League terms that hadn’t happened since 1994.
Crisis? Cork’s broad-shouldered inside forward understands the real meaning of the word. He was on hand for the official link-up between the GAA and the RNLI yesterday — aimed at reducing the number of lives lost at sea — for a good reason: he has witnessed the traumatic effect of what happens when a very real crisis point is reached at sea.
He spoke pointedly of the tragic sinking of the Tit Bonhomme trawler off Union Hall on the coast of west Cork, the fishing village where Hurley grew up 30 metres from the pier’s edge, and of how quickly the community gathered as part a rescue operation.
So he understandably brought a sense of perspective to on-field matters.
On the outside looking in since tearing his hamstring partially off the bone in training last July, he hopes to use a full game with his club Castlehaven at the weekend as a springboard to a return. And he said the senior football team have to shut out the noise and negativity of the fall-out to last weekend.
‘I don’t buy newspapers; I don’t really listen to radio stations to be honest with you. I’m coming back from a long enough time out and I’m trying to be as positive as possible and to get myself on the pitch. If you do listen to that stuff, you’ll drag yourself into the gutter. It’s hard to come out of that stuff then.
‘Personally, I’m just trying to be as positive as possible and to enjoy my football because if I was being honest the last eight months haven’t been too enjoyable. Careers are short and hopefully I can come back from this stronger than I was and be positive as a footballer.’
Cork’s downward spiral since the All-Ireland final triumph of 2010 has been stark, last year’s relegation from Division 1 compounded by a first Munster Championship defeat by Tipperary since 1944. What happened in Clare last Sunday was just a continuation of that. Hurley is keen to stress that it’s not for the lack of trying from the players.
‘Again, I don’t listen to people outside of our group. They don’t know how hard we train; they don’t know what’s going on in the group. They don’t know how positive we can be.
‘Everybody is entitled to their opinion but at the end of the day I can only control myself and what I do in the panel and it’s up to everyone else to control themselves and all try to come together. We’re amateurs — nobody goes out to lose. It’s about being as positive as possible and trying to make the Cork people appreciate where they come from and make kids want to follow in your footsteps.’
Next up is a crunch game against Meath in 10 days’ time. ‘Every game you play in Division 2 is very important. You’re coming down from Division 1 and maybe some of the teams haven’t been up there in a while so they want a cut off you and they’re gunning to play you. It’s a tough position but the big gun for us is Meath and we need to come away with a win in response to the Clare game.
‘We went down on scoring difference last year and two or three teams could have gone down. At the end of the day everyone is judged on Championship. If knock-out season was in the League it would be a different story but we just keep our heads down and hopefully there’ll be a big year ahead.’
Clare’s rise from Division 4 to top flight contenders hasn’t surprised him. ‘I can only talk from my own experience — my second game for Cork in the Championship was against Clare. It was one of the most physical games I played. I can remember any time I got a ball there were three fellas bouncing off you. As a team they have very good footballers, Gary Brennan, the Collinses, Jamie Malone, some great footballers. Look, we have to accept that we weren’t good enough on the day and we have to go back to the drawing board and be positive and try to push on from here.’
His own journey back to fitness hasn’t been without its setbacks, enough to cause him to wonder if he’d make it at all sometimes. ‘You obviously ask yourself questions when you’re in a brace for seven or eight weeks and on crutches. You can’t get up and go when you have mood swings and what not. What I did when things got tough and you wanted to quit, was remind yourself of why you started playing football and the winning feeling and it turns your motivation into, “let’s go to the gym today; let’s push it on”.’
Let’s push it on. That might as well be Cork’s mantra right now.
Hurley’s positivity is exactly the kind of thing they need.