WATERFORD HURLING:Tony Browne tells IAN O'RIORDANwhy he believes Waterford have good reasons to be optimistic
PERHAPS IT’S because they’re on the lighter side of the draw and booked to play on a bank holiday, but there’s been little talk of Waterford hurling so far this summer. Manager Davy Fitzgerald will have no complaints about that, particularly as he’s preparing to face his native Clare in next Monday’s Munster semi-final in Thurles, and talk doesn’t get you very far anyway.
Indeed all the talk so far has been of Kilkenny, obviously, then Galway, and, after last Sunday, Cork more so, and Tipperary less so. Waterford, however, are regarded as a little past it by most people. That may be true and yet Tony Browne wouldn’t be embarking on his 19th championship season with Waterford if he didn’t think there was something to play for.
He is, at 36 years and 338 days, the oldest intercounty player left on the scene, or at least the oldest of those that dare admit it. Browne made his senior championship debut in the Munster quarter-final in 1992, against, coincidentally, Clare, and also in Thurles. (He actually first started for the Waterford seniors the year before, 1991, in the league against Galway.)
Since then, he has made an incredible 53 championship appearances, including five All-Ireland semi-finals, and the one All-Ireland final, in 2008 – when Waterford were hammered by Kilkenny.
Waterford lost to Kilkenny again in last year’s All-Ireland semi-final, this time by just five points, and most observers in Croke Park that day reckoned that was the last they’d see of Browne – even though he’d delivered a typical courageous and steely performance at wing back. In fact Browne himself reckoned that would be the last time.
“Nearly every time I come off of Croke Park I say that’s going to be the last time,” he says. “But I suppose at the end of last season I probably did feel that was it for me, the last throw of the dice. In saying that, for some strange season, the body still felt good at the end of last season. Even after Kilkenny beating us I felt I could go on for another six or seven weeks.
“I decided then I’d give the club hurling one last season. I went back with them, and to be honest training with the club is every bit as hard as the county these days. I decided then if I was going to train with the club I may as well go on and finish out with the county for another year as well.”
Part of the deal with Fitzgerald was that Browne would sit out the early rounds of the league, along with the other so-called veterans such as Ken McGrath, Dan Shanahan and John Mullane – and work on a tailor-made training regime designed by Ger Hartmann.
Gradually, they were reintroduced to the panel and Fitzgerald now has all the old guard at his disposal going into Monday’s game.
Browne agrees there’s been little talk of Waterford in recent weeks – although without quite talking Waterford up, says they do have reasons to be optimistic. “Perhaps we’re not being talking about much, but then probably rightly so. But then we were very close to reaching a league final.
“We also played an awful lot of younger players during the league. So we’re not too far away. If we can solve a few problem areas we won’t be too far away. You know Waterford on any given day are well capable of beating the top three or four teams.
“People would also look at Waterford over the last two or three years and say we are an aging team. We do have a few players in their 30s, but we also have an awful lot of young players (such as Tomás Ryan, and Maurice Shanahan). We made the minor and under-21 final in Munster last year too. There is a lot of youth coming through, and that is very positive. This team certainly isn’t as old as people think.”
Browne’s honesty on the field is reflected off it, and he doesn’t deny the dream of winning that elusive All-Ireland is still alive.
“Of course that was always the goal. For the whole team I suppose. At the same time I’ve had a decent career, won a couple of Munster championship medals, won a league medal as well.
“Picked up another few bits along the way. So when I look back it was a decent enough career. But at the end of the day every hurler who plays for his county wants to win an All-Ireland.
“I probably will look back and think about opportunities where maybe we could have took one. Like I think maybe 2007. We were really going well that year. We won the league, won the Munster championship. We came up to play Cork in a quarter-final, and it went to a replay. Then we played Limerick a week later. That was three big games in 14 days, and I knew looking at players that week that we were a small bit tired. But I think we were really in a prime then.
“Maybe in 1998 too. I think we were the surprise package that year. Offaly went on and won it, but Kilkenny beat us by a point in the semi-final. I think that was a huge opportunity for us as well.”
Age, as Lance Armstrong says, is just a number, although at 36 this is likely to be the last summer we see Tony Browne in a Waterford jersey. Or is it?
“I don’t put any timeframe on this. I can only go on how I feel. Definitely, looking at my age and everything else, this would have to be my last year. I think so.”
