Dunne finally begins life at hurling’s top table

London’s opening game against Carlow this weekend will begin an unlikely journey in the Leinster hurling championship for one Tipperary man. Tony Dunne came from a talented bunch of hurlers which won an All-Ireland Minor hurling final in 2006, under the stewardship of Liam Sheedy.

The minor full-forward tasted glory that year with fifteen of Tipperary’s current senior hurling panel. Like many of his former team-mates the progression to senior hurling with the premier county seemed to be the next step for the Burgess native. Dunne moved to London in late 2009 as there was no opportunity of employment in Ireland after he finished his honours degree in Edinburgh.

A talented athlete, he has played football for his county, from minor to senior level. In 2006, he also represented Ireland in the u17 International Rules series. He travelled to play against Australia with players like Dublin’s Kevin Nolan and Donegal’s Michael Murphy.

However, the physical nature and unheralded hard work that makes up Dunne’s game resulted in many injuries after his minor years. This coupled with studying abroad stalled his progression as a hurler and his possible opportunity to play at the highest level.

As he watches Tipperary and many of his former team-mates like Brendan and Padraic Maher, he often ponders to what might have been. “I get the odd idea that I will go back to Ireland and give it one or two serious years. When I come home for a long weekend, I soon realise that I have no job prospects here and there is no other choice for me but to be in London.”

The Kent based engineer’s initial idea when he moved was to remain playing with Burgess in North Tipperary from his London base. After much consideration, he decided to transfer and play with the Kilburn Gaels club.

Jonathon Maher, (who is also from the Burgess club) made the switch to Kilburn around the same time period and this helped Dunne keep a strong connection with home.

A qualified solicitor, Maher was man of the match in the Christy Ring Cup final win against Wicklow. The pair still have some friendly banter about who got the most important touch to the first goal in last year’s final.

To achieve this success since his move, Dunne outlines the commitment it takes to be an inter-county hurler in London. From his Kent home, it is 80 kilometres to London’s training base in Ruislip, “I usually spend roughly 3 hours in the car to get to training and after I usually don’t arrive home until half 12 in the morning.”

Many of his teammates are in the same situation as the nearest tube station is twenty minutes away from the Ruislip pitch. Work is the reason for these Irish men being in London and they can’t expect their English employers to let them off early so they can travel to hurling training.

 “There is a big turnover in the playing population each year and part of the reason for this is due to players not being able to commit to the constant traveling for 6 to 8 months of the year.”

The weekends in London consist of him moving to his girlfriend Aisling’s house in Watford with enough gear and clothes for three days. This is to avoid making the journey on two or possibly three occasions for training or matches with his club and county.

Despite the long commute and commitment for the players, the standard of London hurling has improved over the last three years. St.Gabriels contested the club All-Ireland Intermediate hurling final and the county team won division 2A of the league this year.

Their victory over Meath in that final will ensure that they will be playing against traditional counties like Cork, Wexford and Offaly in next season’s league.

Dunne believes that the league is vital for a team in London’s situation and it is the reason why they become such a tight knit team every year. “We travel to Ireland for our league games and the panel of players are with each other from the Friday to Sunday. This helps build team morale and spirit in the group as we have nothing else but each other’s company in the hotel for the weekend.”

London will be bullish about their chances against Carlow this weekend as they possess former underage hurlers from all the traditional counties. The panel will include, sons of the famous Galway hurler, Noel Lane and well know commentator, ‘Effin’Eddie Moroney, from Tipperary.

Their wing-forward believes that they would have more natural hurlers than their opponents but Carlow have come from playing at higher standard in the league. “They were relegated this year from Division 1B but only lost narrowly to Offaly, Wexford and Antrim”.

“The first ten minutes are vital for us on Saturday. If we can stay in the game and match Carlow’s tempo for them ten minutes, we have the hurlers and game plan to pull off a shock”.

However, the Exiles have been without a game for a month and like other counties their finances are not healthy. This rules out traveling to Ireland for challenge games and limits them to training matches among themselves. Dunne reveals that they do receive 40 pence for every kilometre they travel in expenses along with a pair of boots and some other gear.

 “There is no money to be made by the GAA in London so we rely on fundraising over here, as the county board have no other way of generating income. The club and county games over here don’t attract big crowds or much money from gate receipts, so it’s up to us to raise money to keep the team going”.

London’s debut in Leinster is not being treated as an occasion to celebrate by their team as they began gym training in November in preparation for the championship. A win on Saturday would be an acknowledgment for all the Exiles involved that what they are working towards and trying to build in London is worth all their time and effort.

For the 24 year old, an injury free season and a run of three to four games in the championship would be considered a successful year in a London jersey. An impressive performance on Saturday at this level for Dunne will remind the Tipperary supporters of another player that been has lost due to the country’s economic downturn.

Gaelic Football routes kicking a Monaghan descendant in to the NFL.

Patrick Murray of Fordham Universtiy is another college punter / place-kicker who hopes to be recruited by a team during the NFL draft. His background is unlike many of his fellow college football players hoping to be picked up by a franchise.

 

Murray is the son of Aidan Murray who played inter-county football with Monaghan in the 80’s before moving to America. His uncle Ciaran Murray won two Ulster titles with Monaghan and he also represented Ireland in the 1986 and 1987, international rules series.

 

The First Team All-America place-kicker attributes his ability to his background of playing Gaelic football in his local GAA club in New York as a child. He finds himself in an unusual position as being a punter and field goal specialist.

 

Murray set a new Fordham and Patriot League record with 25 field goals, and he finished his college career with 186 punts for 7,985 yards which is an average of 42.9 yards/punt.

 

Murray’s achievements are all the more spectacular as he had to deal with many obstacles through his development.He was never offered any scholarship by any NCCA teams that wanted him. Their reasoning, was because he was too small and only weighed 162 pounds.

 

The 5’7 kicker, decided to go play with the Blue Hens in Delaware with no scholarship but the promise of one, if his performance and bulk improved. After two weeks,he left Delaware with his parents backing and enrolled in Fordham Universtiy in order to be closer to his family and friends.

 

His move proved to be the correct one and in the 2012 season he was named on the ‘Patriots League Special Teams Player of the Week’ on seven occasions.

 

In Murray’s freshman year he had to deal with the death of his childhood friend, Vince Crotty, who was fatally injured in a car accident. Since then, the New Jersey native, plays every game with the initials VC inscribed into white tape on his left wrist.

 

Murray went through his first two years in Fordham Universtiy on no scholarship despite wining the CFPA FCS Punter Performer of the Year Award in 2011 with the best all-round statistics. His kick-off average of 65.2 yards was a new record.

 

It was only when Joe Moorhead was hired as the new coach that Murray received a scholarship in his final year. It led to him being the number one punter in the league and as a field goal specialist he scored four field goals from over 50 yards which ranks him number one in all of America.

 

Murray is expected to have work-outs with the New York Jets and Giants in the coming weeks. It is likely that his size will not work to his advantage in the game but at a recent work-out with NFL scouts, he hit a 61 yard field goal.

The NFL record is 63 yards for a field goal!

 

Murray constantly credits his fathers influence along with Gaelic football to the American public and he explains his ability to punt the ball on the move ‘is because that is what Gaelic football entails’.

 

If Patrick Murray continues his rise in American Football and becomes a success. The GAA players of Ireland may find themselves subject to interest from NFL scouts.

 

Here are some clips of Murray’s Gaelic football like style of kicking – http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loPtvzPXL70

 

 

 

Finally. Could someone like Bryan Sheehan have a career in America? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5WaNh0a3UI

By Sean Flynn

What I say in my blog is not gospel.It is my opinion which is not right or wrong. As I write for papers, I cant yet give my opinion in any articles, so this is my platform to do so! I am just a casual observer of life.

Feel free to comment or abuse!

As this is my first entry on my blog, I feel compelled to write about, John Mullane, who has retired from inter-county hurling. As my father was a Waterford supporter I attended games and watched the Del La Salle man light up matches with his skill, speed, finishing and charisma.

He issued a statement through the GPA on Thursday and one sentence in his statement ignited the memories of him in my head.

He stated “The sense of genuine pride I got from wearing the Waterford jersey and representing the county I love will live with me forever.”

He received no fairy-tale ending to his career and like some of the best his greatest performances came in defeat. He finished his career scoring 15-133 in 49 championship matches and was only held scoreless in 3 of his 49 appearances.

I just knew the summer had arrived every year when I watched Mullane score a point over his shoulder in Semple Stadium, on a Sunday in early June.

The passion of the ‘kiss to the crest’ or the ‘fist to the crowd’ was often misjudged as arrogance by other teams.

But the two fingers to the crowd against Cork or the slide in front of Davy Fitzgerald as he celebrated their win against Clare, were not acts of an idiot or thug.

Against Cork he was just acting on passion as he felt his beloved Waterford were looked down on by a hurling superpower. The reaction to Fitzgerald was from the feeling of having been wronged by comments from the Clare man.

The supporters in the terraces could relate to Mullane and you could probably imagine him showing the same emotion if he was standing in the terraces while watching Waterford play.

He gave many hours of enjoyment to my father who was a long suffering Waterford supporter up until their Munster Final victory in 2002.

He was the one player for Waterford who always took the fight for the other team. Even during their off days, he still ran and showed for the ball despite defenders in close proximity.

My fondest memory of the De La Salle man was in the 2008 All Ireland hurling final, when Waterford lost to Kilkenny by 23 points. I sat around some faithful Waterford supporters who would not leave until the final whistle was blown.

Mullane was one of the very few players that day who took the fight to Kilkenny right up to the last second of the game.The evidence of the supporters love for Mullane was shown by one incident that happened in the second half of that game.

As Mullane received a ball he was surrounded by five Kilkenny players with no sight of any Waterford player to take a pass. The emotional reaction from the Waterford supporters was incredible, their leader had been left alone to the ruthless Kilkenny defence.

The supporters stood up to berate the five other forwards for not helping Mullane. He trailed into the corner just a few minutes after that incident with his head down. The cries could be heard from the adoring Waterford supporters around us, ‘Mullane you legend” and “If we only had a few more of you John”.

In a sickening defeat for Waterford GAA, the supporters could appreciate the forward’s attitude and effort he gave in that match.

My memories of Mullane will stay with me forever and I hope his passion can be put to good use in some other aspect of the GAA in Waterford or in Ireland.

Maybe the people in Montrose will not be put off by his strong Waterford accent and he will be used by RTE to give insights into the game that he played so well.

If there was ever a GAA player who could be compared to ‘William Wallace’ from the film Braveheart, it was Mullane. Wallace’s fight for freedom could be compared to that of Mullane’s quest for an All-Ireland medal, sadly both achieved neither!

Finally- The media have been obsessed with Jamie Heaslip being named as captain of the Irish rugby team instead of Brian O’Driscoll. Another story outlined that John Mullane had retired because he was not made captain of the Waterford team.

Mullane’s reaction to this story was to say “What is captaincy? Just because I wasn’t captain, it never stopped me from speaking my mind in a Waterford dressing-room”.

His reaction is maybe something for all of us to think of when a captain is picked that we don’t agree with. If we are relying on the words and actions of one person to inspire us to play well, WE ARE FUCKED!