Connors Relishing the Joys of Summer

“IT’S hard to articulate it, the feeling
of pulling on the Waterford jersey in
a dressing room before a Championship
match, and the surge of adrenaline
that runs through your body.
“And it’s not even the day itself,
the few hours before the throw-in. It’s
the whole week leading up to it. The
expectation you put on yourself to
perform, on the team to do well, to go
out onto to that pitch with your head
held high and to come off it, ideally,
feeling the same way.”
Noel Connors talks as good a game
as the one he plays. The Passage corner-
back, magnificent for Waterford
throughout their victorious National
Hurling League campaign, would
appear destined for a commentary
booth or a TV studio a few years from
now.
But there’s hurling aplenty to be
played between now and then for
‘Noelie’, the 2010 All-Star, who only
turned 25 on May 5th.
There’s been no evident signs of
bullishness or too much pre-emptive
chat about a Munster Final appearance
among Deise fans despite their
side’s sweeping aside Cork in the
National Hurling League.
And, from a player’s perspective,
the Munster Final represents a date in
the hurling calendar and nothing else
right now.
“Maybe it’s something we might
have fallen down a little on in the
past; celebrating a bit too much after
things had gone well for us,” Noel
told The Munster Express.
“We’d two days – no, it wasn’t even
two days – it was more like a day and
half after the League Final where we
let the hair down and enjoyed ourselves.
But that was the end of it.
“And then we went back to the
clubs for the first two rounds of the
Senior Championship, in which
we’ve (Passage) had a really good
start, and in the past couple of weeks,
we’ve been working hard to get things
right for next Sunday in Thurles. The
Championship is what you live for
as an inter-county hurler and we’re
determined to deliver another big
performance against Cork.”
There’s been a can-do, getting
down to business vibe that’s resonated
from Waterford’s management
and panel from the turn of the year.
That attitude has proven as consistent
as their performance levels and one
doesn’t expect either to drop come
Sunday afternoon.
Connors’ individual form since
the turn of the year has been particularly
eye-catching, not that one will
fi nd him getting too self praiseworthy
when that was put to him. For
example, keeping Patrick Horgan
DERMOT KEYES REPORTS
scoreless from play wasn’t a personal
statistic he devoted a great deal of
time too following League Final day.
“For me, yeah it was fantastic that
it went so well against such a proven
attacker with such a big reputation in
the game, but it was far more important
that we delivered and performed
as a team.
“By that I mean if [Horgan] had
come up with a few more scores from
play or from frees, the thing that still
mattered most to me was that we produced
a performance good enough
to win and that’s exactly what we
did. And now we move on to the
next match, and the next match just
happens to be Cork again, and it’s
all about delivering again and maintaining
our focus as a team and as a
panel.”
Noel continued: “That’s something
which Derek, Dan (Shanahan) and
Fintan (O’Connor) have been big on
all year: to stay calm and collected as
a group, to not get too ahead of ourselves
when things go well, or to not
get too caught up with things when it
doesn’t work out. It just so happens
we’ve not had a day yet this year
when things haven’t gone well for
us, which is something we’re all very
proud about, but we can’t invest too
much thought now on what’s already
been achieved.
“Now it all comes down to next
Sunday, and focusing on Cork, and
winning that match. That’s where
we’re at now; we’re not looking
beyond Cork.”
So how’s the dynamic within the
group at present?
“I’d say it’s certainly the best
atmosphere I’ve ever trained
and hurled in from a Waterford
perspective up to this point in my
career,” Noel declared. “From one
down to beyond 30, there’s a fantastic
level of togetherness when we come
together to train, to get to work.
“If you’re feeling any way lethargic
on a night at training, there’s a
team mate alongside you, urging you
on, encouraging you, doing what he
can to keep the pep in your step on a
night when you might be struggling
to find it.
“The attitude of the panel has been
fantastic, and the management team
have to take enormous credit for that.
Only 15 of us can be picked to start
any weekend, but any of the lads
starting matches will tell you how
much encouragement and support
we’re getting from the bench and the
extended panel.
“That speaks volumes for where
we are as a panel right now, and long
may that remain the case. Our happiness
as a panel has been reflected in
how we’ve performed up to now and
when you have that kind of togetherness
within a group, that’s one
hell of a bond to have, that’s a great
dynamic to be able to call upon, and
that can only help us when we look
at the challenge directly in front of
us: facing the Munster champions in
Thurles. This is what hurling at this
time of the year is all about.”
Hard work and honesty has been
the most fundamental element at
work in Waterford’s hurling year to
date, but it’s by no means a revolutionary
concept at inter-county level,
according to Noel Connors.
“You can have all the hurling
ability in the world, but if you as a
team don’t have a commitment to
empty the tank for 70 minutes, talent
alone won’t always get you across the
line,” he commented.
“Good defending starts with your
forwards, and we as two lines of
backs have been incredibly well supported
by our forwards, dropping
back to assist when the time calls
for it. Kilkenny wouldn’t have won
all their All-Irelands over the past
decade or so without their forwards
drifting back inside their own 65s to
support their backs, digging in, competing
for dirty ball and winning it.
They’ve climbed that mountain time
and time again, and set the standard
that all other counties aspire to.”
He added: “Moving on to the
next level is what we’re demanding
of ourselves now. From a player’s
perspective, if we don’t build on
what we’ve achieved already this
year, starting with a win on Sunday,
that’d be a let down, no doubt about
it. There’s a will to win and a commitment
to work hard like I’ve never
known in my time as a senior intercounty
hurler and we’ll be doing all
we can to retain that focus and level
of hunger over the course of what
we hope will be a long, successful
Championship.
“The League was a great success,
and we’ll have more time at the end
of the year to reflect on that and
take a little more satisfaction out of
achieving promotion and winning
a trophy as part of that. But we’ve
parked that now for now.
“The main objective at the start
of every year is to win Liam Mac-
Carthy, and there’s a series of steps
you first have to take in order to
fulfil that objective. Cork next
Sunday is the first step, and we’ve
been working incredibly hard these
past few months to make our first
step in the Championship a productive
one. And that’s where our focus
is right now.”