Kelly: No disputing validity of All-Ireland glory
Record-breaker Kelly is aiming to improve
TONY Kelly said that there will be no asterisk attached to the winner of this year’s Liam MacCarthy Cup. For all the uncertainty caused by Covid, this weekend sees Waterford play Kilkenny and Limerick face Galway in two mouthwatering All-Ireland SHC semi-finals. And while his own scoring heroics couldn’t keep Clare in the Championship, Kelly claimed there can be no disputing the ultimate winner. ‘There will be no asterisk beside any Championship won, be it hurling or football. If you are looking especially from a hurling point of view it wasn’t straight knock-out. You still got your second day out. You can’t complain that if you win it you weren’t deserved. The only difference being there were no supporters there. ‘Some people might argue that it might be different with supporters there but there’s still 15 lads on the field, still panels of 26.
Everyone got the same amount of time to prepare for it. ‘If anything, it’s probably slightly harder because if you get a goal, you’re trying to create your own momentum. The lift of the crowd isn’t going to drag you through it or anything like that.’
TONY KELLY could be f orgiven f or talking about himself. Not content with shooting the lights out in Clare’s Munster quarter-final defeat by Limerick — his 17 points matching a Championship scoring record that dated back to Eddie Keher in 1972 — he tore it up against Laois and Wexford and Waterford.
By the time his county crashed out of the All-Ireland series last Saturday — and he limped out with an ankle injury — he had a stunning aggregate of 1-53 to his name, 1-20 of that coming from open play.
It was more than enough to see him unveiled yesterday as the PwC GAA/GPA Player of the Month for November. And enough to push him into Hurler of the Year conversations.
But before getting in to all that, he’s happy to talk about the last four teams remaining i n the Championship and the current Covid-19 restrictions for sport during Level 5 that mean up to 10 players, on any given panel, won’t be allowed travel to Croke Park for this weekend’s All-Ireland semi-finals.
He just can’t see the logic of it and strongly argues for a change ahead of the All-Ireland final. ‘Definitely. I don’t know the reason or I can’t see why all of the panel can’t go to the match. You’re leaving eight, maybe 10 lads behind. They are the lads coming training every night and putting just as much work as every player on the field. Even after the match you play, you might have the 20 lads who partake in the match, then the lads who are doing thee extra e ta training. Getting ting even more dogged ged are the lads who o weren’t at the match because they have to keep their load up.
‘I’m not sure are they going to change it for the weekend – it definitely should be changed by now. The two teams that get to the All-Ireland final, it’s an extremely special match or event for any player. I hope the GAA or the Government do look at it and let in the extra 10 lads. Especially when you’re playing in grounds like Thurles, Croke Park, Páirc Uí Chaoimh, that can hold 50,000 people. You can socially distance, no problem.
‘In fairness to any GAA team going around the country, you look at it at the weekend, there’s no problems with it, no issues. Everything is done above board.
Every county board, every county team, has done it as professionally as it could be done. You’d just be hoping that the two teams that get to the All-Ireland, that there isn’t 20 lads watching it at home on television, and that they don’t feel somewhat involved.’ After the disappointment of losing a high- scoring thriller to Waterford last Saturday, he finds himself in a protective moon boot too after doing dank ligament damage early on in the game, only minutes after scoring a point with his first shot. A combination of first aid and strapping, not to mention match adrenaline, saw him through but the injury clearly hobbled his game and Clare’s chances of reaching a semi-final.
‘In the warm-up I got it kind of caught,’ he explains. ‘Myself and Conor Cleary were doing a shooting drill, but it was fine after the warm-up. It didn’t really affect me at all, it was actually perfect. Out by the sideline then, just when the ball went over the line whatever way I landed I just completely went over on it.
‘I hurt the same ankle maybe three or four years ago, I did ligaments in it so then on Monday I went for a scan. The ligaments on the outside of my ankle are damaged, and I’m in a boot now for a week or two so I’ll get out of that as quick as I can and start building it up again.’
He admits that it impacted the rest of the game. ‘Playing the match, straight- l i ne running wasn’t too bad. My ability to turn was affected. I couldn’t really turn left or right.
‘Straight running, there was pain alright. But in terms of coming off, I still felt I’d something to offer, whatever restrictions I had.
‘Looking back on it now, would someone like David Reidy or Diarmuid Ryan or one of the forwards be able to maybe offer more? Probably, looking back.
‘But it’s no real excuse for my own performance or the team’s performance. It’s just one of those things that happens.
‘Matthew O’Hanlon last year played a whole game in an AllIreland semi-final with a cruciate gone so, loads of things happen in a game in terms of injury. And it’s often worse the next day.
‘And it was worse for me on the Sunday than it was on Saturday during the match.’
On Tuesday, he decided to put himself through the process of rewatching the full match after it was sent to him by management.
So how does a player in the form of his life — seven seasons on from winning the Hurler and Young Hurler of the Year award at just 19 — look to improve?
‘You get your own individual clips and you get the full game. You might think you are addressing every weakness that you have, but often an external pair of eyes looking in will point out something that you might not have thought of.’
Given his career highlights reel, including that breakout summer of 2013 when Clare won the AllIreland, was this his best?
‘I suppose the best three or four game stretch in a row? Possibly. In terms of scoring, certainly. In terms of maybe my most productive over a short period of time.
‘So yeah, probably so.’
‘It’s up to the individual player to go and seek help’