Injured Pauric Mahony speaking at the Sports Expo held in Tramore as part of Bank of Ireland's Enterprise Town initiative
Mahony is upbeat about his recovery
from the shin injury that ended his
hurling season all too early.
Speaking at the Tramore Enterprise
Town initiative’s Business and Sports
Expo (on May 22nd), sponsored by
Bank of Ireland, the Ballygunner and
Deise talisman, Pauric was in good
form when he spoke to The Munster
Express about the lengthy journey
back to fitness he now faces.
“It’s a huge disappointment obviously
not to be playing for the rest
of the summer, especially given how
well the National League had gone
for us,” he said. “But the support I’ve
received since the injury had been
something else and it’ll be a great
motivating factor for me over the next
few months.”
Back in the gym since last week
(“I’ll be building up my strength to
help in my recovery”), Pauric said
the hard work put in over the winter
proved instrumental in the Deise’s
League success.
“We did a lot of work in the gym,
with a big emphasis on weights,” he
told the big audience gathered at Ard
Scoil na Mara, where he was joined
by Deise great Tony Browne, Tipperary’s
Seamus Callanan and Kilkenny’s
Richie Power.
“We also planned very well for
every match in terms of analysing the
opposition, and we worked so hard in
all of those matches; we physically
out ran each team we played in terms
of kilometres run.”
As for what lies ahead for Port
Láirge? “I’d say we’re in for a decent
few years in terms of the League and
Championship. We’ve a really solid
identity as a team, there’s a great
togetherness in the group and our
morale levels are very high.”
Pauric added: “I played for Derek
McGrath as a De La Salle College
player. When I was 15, he threw me
in at the deep end in a Harty Cup
quarter-final and I ended up keeping
my place in the team after that. He’s
always had great faith in me.”
Over 30 clubs and societies attended
the ‘Clash of the Counties’ event,
which was chaired by Irish Daily Star
GAA scribe Shane Stapleton.
When Stapleton, who coined the
“Donegal of hurling” phrase to the
best of our knowledge during the
League campaign, put that point to
Tony, the former Hurler of the Year
was politely having none of it.
“That doesn’t stack up to me when
you look at Waterford’s high scoring
rate (at least 20 scores in seven successive
matches) over the course of
the League campaign, so I don’t feel
that label is particularly fair,” said
Tony, who is part of the county’s
Under-21 hurling management team.
“They’ve finished all their games
very strongly so far this year and
they’ve scored heavily throughout
which has been very encouraging.
Pre-planning is a significant part
of the game nowadays; that wasn’t
really the case when the likes of me
were turning out for Waterford under
Ger McCarthy, Justin McCarthy and
Davy Fitzgerald. I’m a big admirer of
this current team and it would be great
to see them go on to make their mark
on the Championship having won the
League so convincingly.”
Looking back on his own illustrious
career, Tony commented: “We’d
definitely have won two or three All-
Irelands in another era; it was just our
misfortune in a sense to be hurling at
our best at a time when Kilkenny and
Cork had two of the strongest teams
in their history, two of the best teams
to have hurled in any generation of
the game. If our team was at its peak
now, playing in this year’s Championship,
when you consider the players
who’ve left the stage in Kilkenny,
Cork and Tipp for that matter, I’d
fancy our chances.
“But look, in saying all that, we’d
a great team ourselves, with the likes
of Ken McGrath, Dan Shanahan, Eoin
Kelly and John Mullane to name just
a few of them. But you’d have to hand
it to Kilkenny and Cork – they were
both outstanding teams that had great
quality and that something extra, and
they were great opponents.”
On a humourous note, Tony added:
“The recession will be truly over in
Waterford when the MacCarthy Cup
comes back over Rice Bridge!”
Recalling how Waterford’s 1992
All-Ireland Under-21 title success
proved the launching pad for the
county’s re-emergence at senior level,
Tony hopes that the county’s recent
underage success, highlighted by the
minors’ All-Ireland win two years
ago, will act as a catalyst for great
days ahead at the top level.
Carrickshock and Kilkenny star
Richie Power proved another engaging
speaker, claiming an All-Ireland
title looks within the Deise’s reach
“over the next few years – they’ve a
young, fit and very well drilled team”.
Richie said: “The likes of myself
have been fortunate to hurl at a time
when Kilkenny have been so strong
in Championship hurling. Losing in
2010, when we were going for fi ve in
a row, that was a huge personal disappointment
for me, but we used that for
motivation for the following year and
we responded well. And that’s a huge
part of the game, how you deal with
disappointment.”
As for manager Brian Cody: “Sure
you could only admire him. But he’s
very tough; I guess you have to be
when you manage for as long as he
has and been as successful as he has
been. He’s never been afraid to make
the big call when it comes to selecting
his team; the best take risks when
they feel the time is right and he’s
never shirked away from that. We just
hope we can go out and be competitive
again this year. We’re defending
the All-Ireland we know that means
we’re there to be shot at, I suppose –
but sure that’s part of the challenge.”
What of the other contenders?
“Dublin have improved and don’t
look like they’re going to go away
any time soon, and that’s been for
both Leinster hurling and the overall
Championship,” Power commented.
Tony Browne is encouraged by
the advanced made by traditional
hurling counties such as Limerick and
Wexford, as is Tipperary goal getter
Seamus Callanan.
And both Browne and Power identifi
ed Deise and Mount Sion centreback
Austin Gleeson as “a great new
star of the future”. Of course, Tony
has seen Austin’s progress at first
hand down through the years at Cnoc
Síon, making the youngster’s progress
all the more satisfying on a personal
level. Browne also singled out Tadhg
de Búrca as “another man to keep an
eye on – he’s a great talent”.
The interviews were handled very
well and there was also great interaction
with the crowd during the
Question and Answer session in what
was an absorbing discussion about
hurling.
