Ready to win the hard way

All-Ireland Club HC/Focus on Toomevara: Ian O'Riordantalks to Toomevara captain Tommy Dunne ahead of Saturday's semi-final against Ballyhale

So the rugby crowd are all giddy about playing in Croke Park for the first time, and as far as true hurling followers are concerned they can have it - at least for now. For them the only game that matters this weekend is Saturday's AIB All-Ireland club semi-final and the guaranteed epic between Ballyhale Shamrocks and Toomevara.

It's a classic hurling contest between two great clubs from two great hurling counties. It's also a game loaded with incentive and emotion and even nostalgia, both clubs having a dozen reasons for needing to win. But the one that still stands above them all concerns Toomevara captain Tommy Dunne.

At 33 Dunne's place in Tipperary hurling history is secure. Yet since captaining the county to their last All-Ireland title in 2001 - when he was hurler of the year - Dunne's main motivation has gradually shifted towards winning the All-Ireland club title with Toomevara, the club that means as much as family, with the current team also including his four brothers, Terry, Ken, Benny and Barry.

"This is a bit of a crossroads for the club alright," he says. "We've won 10 county championships now since 1992 . . . we've won our third Munster championship now, the second in three years. So this is the big step, definitely a big challenge, against a very fine team, to try and go on to win our first All-Ireland.

"And for sure we're very disappointed we don't have that All-Ireland with the club at this stage, given all we've won at county and Munster level. But I wouldn't say we're under-achievers."

Now retired from the county team, Dunne remains driven by the thought of capturing that club title. He has indicated this would be his last season, which turned the Munster final back in November into a final showdown between two old hurling rivals, ending with Cork and Erin's Own icon Brian Corcoran playing his last game in the narrow, one-point defeat.

And Dunne's sacrifices to stay on top of his game have been huge, especially given his health problems of recent years after being diagnosed with ulcerative colitis. He finds it hard to maintain his ideal body weight and every effort has to be carefully managed. "It has been tough," he admits, "and physically it is very, very demanding. Plus all the mental demands that go with it. But my biggest concern was that physically I mightn't be able to reach the standards, even club standards, because club standards are increasing all the time, and much closer to county level now, especially for the leading clubs.

"I've plenty of motivation, especially being captain. And because this time a year ago I could never have seen myself in this position. I didn't even feel much like playing with Toome for the 2006 campaign. So to come from that point to this point is a massive thing, and something I'm really enjoying. It's all thanks to hard work and discipline, and I also have to be very conscious of not doing too much. For people like me less is more sometimes."

Two years ago they lost the All-Ireland semi-final to Athenry, but given their path to this year's semi-final - and the repeated doggedness of their performances - Dunne has every right to feel they've as good a chance of closing the deal as ever before. He also puts part of that down to manager and former Limerick hurler Pat Herbert. "Pat came to us just over 12 months ago, and has that strong army pedigree. Himself and Ross Dunphy have worked really well for us, and we went through all of 2006 unbeaten, challenge games and all, and won really tough games. That says a lot about his professionalism and emphasis on discipline and things like that.

"I think after 2005 we felt we needed someone from outside, who would almost take it on as an intercounty job, and I think that's the way it's worked. If you go back over a lot of our matches this year, even against Mullinahone in the county semi-final, a lot were won right at the death. So we have a good pedigree for finishing strong, and good confidence in our own ability. And a huge ingredient here is experience, and we have lots of that."

But the last thing Dunne is about to do is underestimate Ballyhale, who are far from a two-man show of Kilkenny stars Henry Shefflin and James "Cha" Fitzpatrick: "I'm under no illusions about the task. It would be brilliant though . . . It's something the whole club has a ferocious hunger for. It's something we feel we might have won in the past, and didn't, but that doesn't give you a divine right to win it now or ever.

"It was like the Munster thing last year, you have to go out and get it the hard way. That's the only way things are won. We may never win it, but we'd sure love to win it this year. It would be fairytale stuff."