Reviving the game

IT’S often lamented that hurling is in a geographical straitjacket, unable to move beyond the counties where it is strong for over 100 years.
There’s less talk about how confined the game can be within the counties where it actually has a strong base, such as Clare. Despite the All-Irelands of the ’90s, the game has failed to penetrate huge tracts of the Banner and many young people grow up without having any opportunity to play.
One club showing progress, however, is St Breckan’s of Lisdoonvarna, whose U-14 hurlers this year captured the Bord na nÓg C Championship and the Féile Division 4 title.
One of the driving forces behind the success is Peter Casey, who was over the successful side and who began working to revive hurling in the town less than 10 years ago.
Before that the game had been dormant; the previous success of Peter’s father John in getting it going some years back having stalled.Peter hurled for Corofin after Lisdoonvarna stopped fielding and his love of the game is apparent from the efforts he has made to get it going again in his own club.
“When I was a small lad, I played in Lisdoonvarna but by the time I got to 14, there wasn’t enough playing. I got to be more interested in coaching than in playing and I would have started with the young lads here about 2001 or 2002.”
He feels it is very important to get young people hurling early. “A good hurling team might convert to being a good football team easily enough, but it’s hard to get the skills of hurling. If someone starts at around 10 years of age, it can be hard to keep them interested because it’s easier for them to play soccer or football. It’s very important to coach the skills when they’re young.”
Peter says those involved with the St Breckan’s U-14 football team were very co-operative and feels there is a need for synergy between mentors of different sides. “It is difficult, you need a good club and very level headed people. The U-12 footballers were in the A final and they’ve a lovely team. There’s a nice U-12 hurling team as well and the panel is nearly the same. There are very levelheaded people involved and we realised that we can’t be braining like the Kilmurry-Ibrickanes or Sixmilebridges of this world. There were very good fellas over the U-14 football as well; they pulled back a bit before the Féile and before the county final.”
Lisdoonvarna have an U-16 team this year and he is hopeful the club will field a minor side in a few years. “It’d be nice to get this year’s U-14s playing minor and if we could do it with this year’s U-16s as well, that’d be great.”
The successful U-14s had victories over a number of traditional hurling clubs in the county championship. “We lost the first game to Corofin and then we beat Parteen, Cratloe, Scariff and Broadford. We lost to Ruan and then we lost to Crusheen/Tubber. We got back into a play-off and then we beat Crusheen/Tubber. In the semi-final we beat Ruan and we beat Broadford in the final. We improved with every game and we learned a lot from the defeats. It’s important for young fellas to learn about losing as well as winning and you find out a lot about lads the day you lose.”
In the Féile, they had a great win over Scariff after extra time in the semi-final, and had another win over Crusheen/Tubber in the decider. “I never saw a dressing room as bad as the Scariff dressing room afterwards. They had worked very hard for the Féile and I felt for them. We went on to beat Crusheen/Tubber in the final. We had a good rivalry with them over the year; they beat us the first time but we won the rest of the games.”
In the mid-80s, hurling wasn’t played in Lisdoonvarna but Peter’s father John began promoting the game. John said the development of the game takes time but he’s delighted with this year’s underage success.
“I came back from England about 25 years ago and I started the hurling around then. It was a tough struggle. I never thought it’d go as well as it is now. It takes years. Maybe some of the current team will bring it on again in another 14 or 15 years.”
He said Ruan were helpful and gave credit to Cyril Lyons for the work he did. “When we were struggling, we got a lot of help from him and he came up here to help us for free on a lot of nights.”
He feels the football side of a club will only benefit from having youngsters hurling as well. “I think it’s brilliant for football because if a young lad will go into a tackle in hurling, he’ll go into any tackle.”