GAA: GAVIN CUMMISKEYtalks to Waterford veteran Tony Browne, in his 20th championship campaign, about what it takes to continue his long journey

TONY BROWNE is 38. The three-time All Star wing back has been on the championship treadmill since 1991. There are four provincial medals at home, so Sunday’s Munster hurling final in Páirc Uí Chaoimh is really just another game for the man.

Even the sight of these young Tipperary thoroughbreds swarming around him, and already in possession of the one accolade he craves, will not unduly faze him. Nothing does anymore.

Browne looks around Waterford training now and Dan Shanahan’s larger than life presence is already a fading memory. So too is the heroic fielding of his best friend and fellow half back warrior Ken McGrath.

Their seats in the dressingroom have been filled by free-wheeling kids wearing strange clothes, with oddly-shaped haircuts, all glued to their iPhones. He still loves every second of it. Even the thumping house beats are growing on him.

“You’d be in the corner there togging out and kinda thinking about what you are doing and these fellas are touching their iPhones, wondering what song is on, there is just no fear about them at all.

“That’s just the way they are. I am a very laid-back fella myself, the few old butterflies would be there, but I’m starting to take a leaf out of their books now; maybe listen to a few house songs or whatever they’d be listening to.”

A bond already exists between the next wave of Waterford hurlers and those, like Browne, still travelling on one of the longest journeys in the history of Irish sport.

“It is a great, you need that kind of mix in a team. You can have young lads coming through but you need that bit of experience around the field. Even John Mullane now is in his 30s. You can’t just have under-21s and 19-year-olds coming in. We hope that we have the balance right but only time will tell.”

Everyone in Waterford was thankful Mullane was still around come the closing moments of the semi-final against Limerick.

“I think that is one thing we took from the game the last day – we wanted to make sure there was a bit of character in the team. The bit of experience around the field probably brought us through in the end, with John going for goal when others would have put it over the bar.”

Ken McGrath is to blame for Browne running out in yet another Munster final in his 20th intercounty campaign.

It started with the two old men, in sporting terms, lifting weights back in January. McGrath turned to him: “‘I’m going to give it one more shot, what are you going to do?’ and I said: ‘Are ya?’ and I went home and thought about it. I met him out then a couple of nights later and said: ‘Well, what’s the story are you going for it?’ and Ken said: ‘Yeah, I’m going to give it a right shot this year’.

“So I said, ‘I’ll join in with you so whether I’m on for 40 minutes or 70 minutes or whatever’, but unfortunately he bailed out on me so I was kinda left there.

“It is certainly strange with Dan and Ken gone. And new faces all around. But it is great to see them coming in and their enthusiasm.”

He knew instantly McGrath wasn’t for turning. “He is one of my best mates and usually I would talk to him and see how he is feeling but this time I knew it was different so I left him.

“I didn’t want to interfere with the decision or tell him to do something he didn’t want to do. I let him sit on it for a few days. He suffered badly with the injury. He just couldn’t go on. The cartilage in his knees was basically gone so it was a tough decision on him.

“At the same time he would have been a great fella to have around as well whether it would be five minutes or 10 minutes. I don’t think people realise the extent of the damage, the soreness in the legs the next day.”

We compare his longevity to Ryan Giggs. He rightly notes Giggs is a professional. Browne has been forced to give six days a week, mostly alone and abstaining from the social pleasures of life to ensure he can still compete at the highest echelons of championship hurling.

“I’m not a teetotaller. I’ll enjoy myself when the time is right. But for me, particularly over the last three or four years, it has been about recovery. The sessions are no problem, I can stay right up there with the lads but it is what I do the next day and the weekend when the lads are off that is the most important thing for me. Just looking after my diet, I do an awful lot of stretching – a couple of hours a week. A lot of pool sessions too.”

Does he feel blessed to be still living the dream of every Waterford hurler after all these years?

“Well, you should have seen me this morning after training! No, I am lucky enough the way I am. I am wiry enough. I pick up a lot of knocks but there is no denying it, I do put in a lot of commitment, otherwise I wouldn’t still be there.”