O'Meara ready to embrace pivotal role

MUNSTER SHC FIRST ROUND:THE VETTING process for young hurlers with the right stuff has become a serious business.

James “Cha” Fitzpatrick of Kilkenny, for instance, began causing stirs and rumours in his early teenage years after a virtuoso Féile tournament. Joe Canning’s prodigious form as a Galway minor was such that fans, frustrated by the senior team, wanted to speed up Time herself so the big Portumna stylist could deliver the Liam McCarthy west again.

Getting noticed early and distinguishing yourself in the traditional framework of the minor and under-21 campaign is the conventional route by which hurlers “make it” to the senior squad.

But it is not the only way.

Eoin Kelly of Tipperary was also pre-ordained for greatness and delivered it almost instantaneously, responding to the show of faith by then manager Nicky English in winning his first AllIreland in 2001.

But that was nine years ago and now the Premier County may need a fresh face, someone new and different to add to last year’s mix.

The gallantry of Tipp’s performance in the All-Ireland final was all very well but now comes the trickier business of bettering it. Tipperary had to continue to evolve as soon as the new season began. And they have done that, introducing Timmy Hammersley over the league and then, on Thursday night, boldly picking fresh arrival Brian O’Meara and handing him his first senior start against Cork in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

Nobody can accuse Liam Sheedy of just sticking to the same old same old. Tipp needed to reimagine their forward unit to some extent and O’Meara’s appeal was obvious.

His inclusion brings Noel McGrath out to the half-forward line and gives Eoin Kelly and Lar Corbett a natural target man to play off. John Quinlan, O’Meara’s club coach, thinks of Declan Ryan when he is asked who O’Meara reminds him of.

The Kilruane trainer was not surprised Tipp management used the forward in recent challenge games against Dublin and Clare nor that they were pleased with what they saw.

“He scored 15 points out of 26 for us one evening there against Portroe, Liam Sheedy’s own club. About half from play and half from placed balls. He was good. The next game out then against Moneygall he did more distributing than scoring, he was a marked man. But that is a tremendous aspect of his game, he brings others into it. He is like Declan Ryan that way.

“You know ‘Buggy’, as we call him, is 6ft3in and he is conditioned. Liam had trimmed the panel back and let a few lads go so there were places. They are clearly interested in him and looking at him seriously when they brought him in this late in the season. . . I have no doubt he will be ready for a championship game. Nothing fazes this lad.”

O’Meara’s elevation is even more startling than that of Hammersley because it has come about so quickly. Like O’Meara, Hammersley played a leading role for Waterford IT in a Fitzgibbon Cup final against NUIG.

His leap from the fringes of Tipperary’s Under-21 squad last year to nailing down serious game time under Liam Sheedy in this year’s league is indicative of an impressive burst of form.

In the early spring, he received rave notices for his contribution to Waterford IT’s Fitzgibbon Cup campaign, a tournament run which ended in defeat after an enthralling final against NUIG and an 1-11 flourish from Hammersley.

But his relatively smooth transition from the world of colleges hurling to the demands of a Tipperary squad who are facing into a season that boils down to All-Ireland or bust has been impressive.

Liam Sheedy has nurtured Noel McGrath’s talent and he quietly slipped Hammersley into the forefront of the Tipperary attack during the league.

Late against Galway, Sheedy sent him in and he filched a point from play. A week later he started for the comfortable stroll against Limerick, racking up 1-3 from play and a free. He started against Waterford and finished with 0-6, five of the tally from placed balls.

“He is doing well,” said Colm Bonnar, who coached both Tipperary players in Waterford for the last three years, when asked about Hammersley at the end of the league.

“I saw there where he set up Eoin Kelly for a score or two and that is an element of his game that is really improving. Timmy’s movement is so good that he can be a hard player for backs to read and he has an extremely good touch so he was able to adjust to senior hurling fairly quickly. He is very sharp and has worked very hard over the last year or so.

“But the step up to championship, in terms of intensity and the speed with which you are closed down is significant and it can take time for any player to get used to.”

Bonnar would have known of Hammersley through his Tipperary association: for the past four of five years, he has featured prominently on the West Tipperary landscape for Clonoulty.

When he came to Waterford IT, he clearly had the skills but his Fitzgibbon season was cancelled out by an ankle injury.

Last year, he flashed two goals against UCC which lit up Bonnar’s radar: ghosting in behind the defence, the perfect timing and the sure finish . . . they were classic poacher’s goals. But it was this year that Hammersley added another element to his game.

“I suppose there might have been a feeling Timmy would have been worried if a corner back was marking him very tight or giving it to him hard. But he has worked incredibly hard over the last year or so to build his strength up, really went at it in the gym and that has paid off.

“He was always a very hard trainer, one of those lads you never see without a hurley in his hand but even though he was a marked man in this year’s Fitzgibbon, he had the strength to win his own ball and get the frees. That has helped him enormously.”

It might seem odd that Hammersley failed to make it on to the Tipperary U-21 team last year. But the setback didn’t dishearten him.

“I think that if anything, it made him more determined in his game,” says Declan Ryan, the former Tipperary All-Star and All-Ireland winner who has watched Hammersley coming through in Clonoulty. Clonoulty have won the West Tipperary divisional championship for the past three seasons, with Hammersley their main threat.

Ryan says Hammersley has the type of scoring instinct that cannot be coached but also reckons he works as hard on his game as any young hurler that he has seen, particularly on practising frees.

“Some players develop at different ages. . . . Timmy is 22 now so he has come on by degrees. I suppose one of the criticisms that might have been levelled at him when he was younger was that he might have been a bit selfish with the ball; that he didn’t look up enough. Maybe that is because he played such an important part of getting scores in our team.

“But it is another aspect of his game that he has worked hard on and he has the ability and vision to bring the players around him into it. He is a natural scoring forward. And we don’t have too many of those in Tipp.”

While O’Meara is set to start, in a long season, it seems likely the Clonoulty man will get his chance. Wing back Michael Cahill will also be experiencing the unique atmosphere of Páirc Uí Chaoimh but he, at least, as the comfort of a league campaign against him.

For O’Meara, there has been no dress rehearsal. Tipperary have made the first brave move of the summer and it makes sense. If they are to win the All-Ireland, they will need to be brave.