Brian Hogan still central to Kilkenny’s defensive plans

They say there are no positions in hurling anymore. Goalkeepers mostly stay where they belong while everyone else plays musical chairs, and if attack isn’t the best method of defence then you’re already losing.

Even for a traditional centre back like Brian Hogan this is perfectly normal. In fact, Hogan knows there are no guaranteed positions of any sort on the Kilkenny team, including the starting ones.

Much has been made about Hogan regaining his centre back position this summer. He was recalled for the Leinster semi-final replay against Galway and nailed down his place every game since. Yet this is the same player who made his Kilkenny debut in 2004, as a gangly 22-year-old, when Wexford took them out with a last-puck victory in Croke Park.

Hogan didn’t start another game with Kilkenny for three years, when he took the number six shirt from John Tennyson. After that he started every game he was fit for (one exception being the 2010 final against Tipperary: Kilkenny have never lost to Tipp with Hogan on board). So now, aged 33, he’s not sure if winning back his position this summer was any more difficult than before.

Establish myself

“Well yes and no”, says Hogan, after a long pause. “Around 2004, I was just trying to establish myself, whereas this year, I had established myself, and it’s more about trying to hold on to my position. So I was just coming from a different point, really, and to be honest about it, every year that’s been the case.

“Maybe the fact I didn’t start a championship game at the beginning of this year, for the first time in a couple of years, that made it a little different, but it didn’t change my train of thought.

“Because Brian Cody makes that clear at the beginning of every year, that what you’ve achieved before is history. It’s a blank canvas. Brian practises what he preaches, and this year, there really has been great competition for places. Maybe last year we were the other side of it, were trying to get guys back, and maybe we didn’t really know what we were at.”

Cody started with a blank canvas alright, placing Jackie Tyrrell at centre back for Kilkenny’s opening two games, against Offaly, and the first game against Galway. Hogan was then pencilled in for the replay, Tyrrell reverting to the corner, and that’s the way it’s been since.

Subs bench

For a while though that meant sitting on the subs bench, and if Hogan was having any hard feelings about that, he only had to look to his left (and see Henry Shefflin), or his right (and see Tommy Walsh). Shefflin and Walsh were still on the bench for the semi-final against against Limerick, alongside players like Walter Walsh and Richie Power.

“I suppose if any of those negative things come into your head you only have to look around the dressing room. I see Henry, and he is two years older than me, and yet probably fitter, the condition he is in.

“And I know from Tommy (Walsh) sitting beside me on the bench, and him peppering to get in. Then the two of us were brought on, in the Offaly match, just couldn’t wait to get in, and that’s what Brian wants to see, really.”

Again, just because Hogan is being named at centre back doesn’t mean he’s accountable for that position alone. Indeed he recalls the 2012 All-Ireland final, against Galway, where he reckons he played in at least three different positions.

“I think at one stage of the match, I also went corner back for about five minutes, then back out wing back, then across the other wing. It was the same actually against Dublin in the Leinster final. So you have to be comfortable, confident to do that. The fortunate thing is the six of us defenders are comfortable enough to play in different positions at different stages.

“So you just can’t be sitting in the middle of the pitch, at centre back, all day. Because it’s not going to happen. You are going to be looking around and picking up guys and thinking on your feet. That’s the key. It’s a matter of just dealing with it and getting on with it.”

So, even though the chances are Hogan will be facing Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher on Sunday, he’s not going to start worrying about one player alone.

“He (Maher) is flying it, has been all year, and is arguably Tipp’s most consistent player all year. It’s a tough task, to keep him under wraps, but there’s no guarantee I’ll be marking him. Their forwards like to rotate, like to move . . . .

“You could actually at six different stages during the match be marking all six. So it’s a bit dangerous to be going in with one particular guy in mind. You need to be focusing on your own game . . . Because we’re all going out with a particularly kind of game in mind. It’s a matter of sizing each other up. But at the same time, you are going to be dragged into positions that you are not used to.”