Trying to make a virtue out of a final defeat

CHAMPIONSHIP 2002/Hurling Preview: Seán Moran hears how Galway trainer Mike McNamara has dealt with picking the team up after last year's All-Ireland loss to Tipperary

The three-point gap between Tipperary and Galway in last year's All-Ireland final may have summed up the difference between the teams on the day but for what they've been through since it was merely the starting point for an exponential deviation. Galway have been in the thick of controversy and received a firm put-down from Tipp in the League quarter-final. The champions are weathering an injury crisis and got dumped out of the League as emphatically as they had dismissed Galway.

But Tipperary have the priceless reassurance of an All-Ireland on the mantelpiece. Having done it once lends composure to a team. There is a positive side to losing, though, and a few sides have used the crushing experience of All-Ireland defeat as a motivation to bounce back and go one better.

For Galway selector and fitness guru Mike McNamara the experience is unusual. With Clare he contested and won two All-Irelands but now with Noel Lane's management team he has had to deal with picking up a team after a major loss.

"First when you lose you literally feel a pain," says McNamara. "You blame yourself for overlooking aspects of the game. Then you have to analyse the team and see if replacements are needed, stronger players - stronger mentally not hurling-wise. There is a temptation to use other competitions to try out players. I don't know about that. In my experience problem areas remain problems. You have to work around them.

"There's no greater motivation than losing a final in front of nearly 80,000 people and a television audience of a million. That's a lot of people to prove wrong.

"Personalities affect the response in a big way. Certain players get sullen and hide for days or blame someone else. But you're part of a team, a package, so when blaming, you have to look at yourself. Then there's the other side of the coin, the happy-go-lucky fellas who just get on with it."

The NHL calendar year structure and the abolition of secondary competitions like the Oireachtas tournament have limited the scope for experimentation to fixtures after Christmas. As well as the pressure of trying to assess candidates who might improve the overall effort, there is the anxiety generated by knowing improvement requires winning an All-Ireland. This can ensure losing a final doesn't give a team a complex. Defeat doesn't guarantee future improvement.

"Some teams find their nerve has deserted them and they can't function for fear of losing," says McNamara. "That's not there on the first occasion because you don't really know what it's about. But in a second final it's a fear that can eat into a team's resources. The only way you benefit from losing is to look at yourself more closely. When you win, you can gloss over problem areas. Lose and you have to look at everyone, one to 15, in fact one to 20 because you can discover subs you haven't paid enough attention to, guys that might have something to offer."

He says he hasn't varied his routines in the light of last September's reverse, neither to adjust fitness levels nor to cater for bruised sensibilities. There are harsh realities lurking behind high-level defeat and no amount of tarting them up changes that.

"I don't change much between Monday and Tuesday. I try and go down the line. Any time you're preparing players, you have to treat them as individuals - using tact with some while an outburst will motivate or drive others. You will always have to tighten focus. One thing a team has to realise is a second defeat means the break-up of the group - a group that maybe has been together for a long time, going back to minor. That's a sobering thought."

One of the reasons an entire team and management unit has to be reviewed after such short periods is the pressure created by public expectation. Nowhere is this more evident than in Galway where there have been five management changes in 10 years. It's a state of affairs that perplexes McNamara when he looks at the current All-Ireland champions.

"Structures can differ within counties. Tipp were allowed run three years without major championship success. That'd be allowed in hardly any other county. It's funny that bigger counties tend to be more patient."

This overlooks the incremental nature of Tipperary's recent advance. Each year of Nicky English's tenure as manager has brought progress, from a League win in his first year to defeat of Clare and an All-Ireland quarter-final in his second. Last year's success was the culmination of three years of improvement and the public appreciated each step.

"In Galway things aren't seen that way," says McNamara. "There's a perception the county's always winning the League. Improvement isn't beating Kilkenny or Cork in the championship. The public demands success because there's been underage success although that's no guarantee. The perception is 'what the hell is wrong?'

He believes Galway's more testing route if they are to reach the final this year will be an advantage. Even under the system of the past five years Galway have been fast-tracked to Croke Park and McNamara feels that that has hasn't always helped.

"Galway now have to fight for the right to play in Croke Park. That's an added bonus for management because it makes players understand that going there is a big thing. I used say to Clare training sessions: 'If you don't smarten up, you won't be wearing collars and ties around Croke Park'. And that used to mean something to the players. We'll have to fight this year even to get to Croke Park."

With Galway's championship due to start six weeks earlier this year and possibly with a very hard match, McNamara has had to adjust the team's training schedule, but not as much as he might have wanted. "At least I'm used to that sort of timetable with Clare. The internal structure of the county championship isn't great. It's at a height now with four weeks to go to our first round. But Galway always take a break after the League and that won't change. We did get heavy work out of the way early.I'd prefer to be back a week earlier. But you cut your cloth to measure."