“It’s nice for the kids to get their photo” – Galway hurlers look after their young fans

Ever since their All-Ireland win, the Galway hurlers have been ecstatic.

No member of that squad is sick of talking about the famous day back on the first Sunday of September. These lads have been working hard all their lives to win an All-Ireland title and after knocking on the door a few times, the Tribesmen eventually got over the line. The scenes in Galway were brilliant, the buzz around the city will pick up again over the coming weeks as Christmas hits and people can sit back and recollect on the year that brought league, Leinster, and All-Ireland success to the county. But before the All-Ireland success there was the build up, in a county that’s as mad about GAA as Galway is, is there a way to cocoon yourself away from it all or is it better to just face up to the chatter that comes with the week of being in an All-Ireland final? https://twitter.com/SportsJOEdotie/status/935643492164034560

“There was great excitement. I’d say I never spent as much time in a storeroom in my life, just trying to get my head right,” admitted Gearoid McInerney, who works in his father’s sports shop. “I normally leave myself a week just to clear my headspace and get all that right. Sometimes that involves staying away from all the conversation around it – I know they mean well but sometimes it can be draining enough. “So you just try and get away from that a week or two before the game which was grand. I just try to embrace it as well because they don’t come around too often.”

An All-Ireland week is undoubtedly a stressful time but it’s evident from the enthusiasm in his voice that McInerney looks back on it fondly. It’s one of those strange weeks where you don’t want to change too much of your routine but then you feel you should be doing more. The old saying about a final is to treat it like any other match but there are always tweaks that are made by players in the build-up and McInerney is no different when it comes to his rituals the week of a game:

“It’d be a combination of experience and advice, just listening to lads. You get to know the craic as it goes. The older lads would be telling you what works and what doesn’t work, and then you find out what works for you. I’m still learning that in a way.”

After winning an All-Star for his efforts in 2017, the Oranmore-Maree club man was hard done by not to receive a Player of the Year nomination. He takes it all in his stride:

“In Galway, there’s a good buzz around hurling, it’s great. Especially for kids, it’s mighty. Even talking to teachers, the amount of kids who have picked up hurling. It’s probably a big boost in hurling and that’s what it’s all about, it’s all about kids. “It’s about them getting their chance to hold the cup, to talk to players and all that. These are the things they’ll remember forever. Even talking to older people, they’re like ‘oh 29 years ago the cup was in my school.’ It’s great to get the chance to talk to players and all that for them. That’s the main reason we do it.”

GAA players are idolised within the county by kids. Hordes of young fans invade county grounds around the country at full-time to get a photo with their favourite players and even walking down the street it’s something that happens every day around Ireland:

“It’s nice for the kids to get their photo or their bit of excitement,” McInerney says at the launch of Coca-Cola's designated driver campaign “I don’t think it’s something you get used to but you don’t mind it, you get used to it,”

The centre-back is also relishing the introduction of the new championship structures, seeing it as a good thing as it’s too easy to get comfortable with the same routine every year:

“You can get comfortable but sometimes it is good to have a small bit of change. “If it doesn’t work, it doesn’t work and you can always go back to the old set up but I think it’s great and I think a lot of teams and players will be well able to adjust and that’s what you want to be able to do. “There’s no point getting comfortable, you have a short enough career at the of it, 10 or 12 years if you’re lucky and even at that it could be less so you might as well change things up and see how it goes.”

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