GAELIC GAMES NATIONAL HURLING LEAGUE:NEWS THAT Galway manager John McIntyre has named six players from Portumna on the team to play Tipperary this weekend wasn't a huge surprise given the quality of the performances by the club in their successful campaign to defend the All-Ireland title.

It has become a familiar refrain over the past year that Galway would be better handing county jerseys to the club champions and being done with it.

Evidence in relation to the idea of club teams translating onto the county stage is mixed. In football, Dublin famously won a National League with 14 St Vincent’s players in 1953 but the link between clubs who win the highest honour on St Patrick’s Day and intercounty success isn’t straightforward.

Portumna’s great predecessors Athenry didn’t manage to ignite Galway’s fortunes, although after their last All-Ireland in 2001, the county reached that September’s Liam MacCarthy finale before going down to Tipperary.

In the last five years the Tommy Moore trophy has been split between Kilkenny and Galway: Portumna’s three victories in 2006, ’08 and this year and the victories of James Stephens in 2005 and Ballyhale Shamrocks in ’07.

Galway didn’t enjoy great good fortune in any of the years when their county champions won and whereas Kilkenny drew a blank in 2005 the county duly doubled up on the All-Irelands two years later.

Some players surf the wave after a successful club season; others are exhausted. Kilkenny assistant manager Martin Fogarty has experience of the benefits and challenges involved in reintegrating club players into the county scene after the euphoria of success on St Patrick’s Day.

“The first thing to look at is injury. If any players are injured, leave them alone. Some will be carrying problems that they couldn’t get sorted out during the club championship.

“Fellas go out for the club no matter what and we wouldn’t even dream of telling them not to – your county involvement is temporary; your club is permanent.”

For county players, going the distance with their club poses different problems.

“You have to treat everyone as individuals,” says Fogarty. “If you have a player who’s gone back in fitness, you have to deal with it. In all fairness to the league – and we always try to do as well as we can in it – it’s not the priority. Your focus is on the championship so we wouldn’t bring back a player for the league if we felt he’d benefit for the championship by a bit of recuperation or it could involve extra training. But there wouldn’t be one fix for everyone.”

Another complication to be addressed, he says, is the varying demands placed on players at club and county levels.

“When you have a county player on a club team he can be playing a totally different role. You could have a corner forward for the county who’s playing centrefield for the club and covering a lot more of the field and then he has to slot back into doing what’s required for the county. But that generally comes around when we get the long evenings to work on it.”

On the other side of the coin, the club championship is an ideal testing ground for players and a staging post on the way to senior intercounty recognition. Fogarty remembers how four years ago the success of the Kilkenny champions confirmed some fresh talent.

“Eoin Larkin, Donncha Cody and Eoin McCormack weren’t on the county panel until after James Stephens won the All-Ireland and then they were called up.”

Larkin is a particularly interesting case, as he had made his way through the under-age ranks sitting on the bench.

When Kilkenny won the All-Ireland under-21 in 2004, he only appeared as a replacement.

From his arrival on the county scene in 2005, Larkin gradually established himself and last year after his best season culminated in the county’s third successive All-Ireland the James Stephens player was named hurler of the year.

Fogarty says the essential qualities of a top hurler can be seen in the pressure of big club championship matches, occasions on which more than talent is demanded of players.

“In a club situation if a guy has talent he has to show leadership. If he can’t do it for his club he won’t be able to do it for his county. But if he brings his talent into a club match and shows leadership you can’t ignore him then.”