By Kevin Egan

Douglas Adams, the author of ‘Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy’, came up with a simple summary of how people of different ages see technology and innovation, saying:

“Anything that is in the world when you’re born is normal and ordinary and is just a natural part of the way the world works. Anything that’s invented between when you’re 15 and 35 is new and exciting and revolutionary, and you can probably get a career in it. Anything invented after you’re thirty-five is against the natural order of things.”

When Galway first came into the Leinster senior hurling championship in 2009, Conor Cooney was a minor hurler, about to embark on a long and successful adult career with club and county. For some people, particularly in the midlands where ‘traditional’ Leinster counties have been frozen out of their own provincial championship, Galway’s ongoing participation still feels a little jarring. For hurlers like the big St. Thomas man, it feels like the most natural thing imaginable.

“I know nothing different; I’ve always been playing in Leinster” he asserts.

“Whatever rivalries are there now, say between ourselves and Wexford or ourselves and Kilkenny, are there in my mind anyway. I’m not thinking about decades before me. It’s always been there for me so that’s all I know”.

There’s a slight irony attached to the fact that the launch for this year’s Leinster SFC and Leinster SHC took place in Collins Barracks in Dublin, home of the National Museum and a fascinating exhibition entitled ‘GAA: People, objects and stories’. This is at a time when there is widespread discussion about the provincial championships, their place in the calendar, their relationship to the All-Ireland series in both football and hurling, and of course the weight of history that they carry on their shoulders every year.

In the GAA generally, geography is a huge factor in everything. Laois and Antrim weren’t expected to win provincial football titles this year and even after picking up first round wins over their respective neighbours, Down and Offaly look like they face uphill struggles to go further as well. But just getting those local derby wins last Saturday evening in Newry and Portlaoise meant the world to the players and supporters involved.

For Galway, and for Cooney in particular who grew up five minutes from the Clare border, the natural local rivalry would be with the Banner County. Portumna folk will always be conscious of their proximity to Tipperary, while the memories of the 1980s and some famous clashes with Offaly will live long in the minds of the people of Eyrecourt and Laurencetown.

Yet instead, competition structures are such that even without any Henry Shefflin/Brian Cody subplots, it’s games like the fixture on Sunday week in Pearse Stadium, when Kilkenny will come to town, that really energise the hurling people of the county now.

“There’s obviously a huge rivalry with the Leinster teams because you meet them so often, and I think that’s natural” Cooney says. “I don’t think geography should play as big an influence in it. I suppose if we were playing Clare more often there would be a huge rivalry, but there isn’t to the same extent at all”.

“We don’t need 100 years of history to be motivated for this Leinster championship. Obviously when you’re a competitor you want to win every game you play, but it’s also the straightest road to an All-Ireland, which is the goal. There’s a bit of a monkey on our back now the last while that we haven’t won one and obviously having been caught badly last year, which was very disappointing, that’s something that we have to put right”.

It’s been a very mixed league campaign for the Tribesmen, with a final day draw with Limerick appearing to give the group a boost in advance of the championship. Cooney is less convinced however that this was a good result for the team.

“To be honest we were disappointed with the result against Limerick. We were playing with an extra man for a good chunk of the game and we probably didn’t make use of it”.

In recent years, round robin league form has looked less and less relevant, but Cooney didn’t buy into the idea that teams were taking a pull all across the country.

“Teams are not just thinking about keeping their head above water, they’re thinking about being a bit more progressive than that. When you maintain your status in the top Division you’re happy but we would have liked to have been more competitive and get to a semi-final or maybe a final. I’d say most teams are trying to give game to lads and give guys a chance to put their hands up. Clare and Kilkenny went hell for leather to win the league final, and while of course every county will be looking to step things up for the championship, I think what we’ve seen so far was teams hurling as well as they can”.

And for Cooney himself, who yet again, had a deep run with St. Thomas and so a late return to county hurling, how does he feel about being ready and sharp at this stage of the season?

“It’s a good complaint that we’ve had. From my own perspective, it’s intense but when it’s managed well by the management teams it’s not so bad. This year we were back relatively quickly after the club final because the final was on that bit later. Last year we were knocked out early January and I was given the month of January off to kind of recharge a little bit. I think the GAA has to put the structures in but it’s up to individual management teams to manage them.

“I was fortunate with the guys I’ve had over me. They’ve been respectful and acknowledged that I’d been on the go a good bit. I definitely feel ready now, and looking forward to trying to win a Leinster championship”.

Just like the world he’s always known.

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