NEWS ROUND-UP:JOHN MULLANE sits casually among a gang of journalists sunning themselves outside the old UCD Sports Bar.
He keeps his answers concise, much like his hurling last Sunday when six points from play, despite constant provocation from the Limerick defenders, saw off their old manager Justin McCarthy and set up a Munster final with Tipperary.
The calmest build-up to a Munster hurling final for years has begun.
“It hasn’t (taken off), but to be fair attendances are down and that has a big bearing on the Munster Championship too. I feel out of all the teams Tipperary probably feel they are best equipped to challenge Kilkenny at the moment.”
He probably knows that questions about last year’s AllIreland final collapse are coming, but we warm up with the usual early bout of positivity.
“Let’s be honest, the two performances against Limerick won’t be good enough to compete against Tipperary on Munster final day. There was an improvement, but it couldn’t be much worse than the previous week really because the previous week was probably regarded as the worst Munster game ever. Conditions were terrible and it was more like winter than summer hurling.”
Eventually, last September’s humiliation at the hands of Kilkenny is broached for the umpteenth time.
Sports reporters are like mafia button men. They come with smiling faces. As your friend. Mullane knows this old dance and barely blinks at a question about any lingering psychological, eh, difficulties in the Waterford camp.
“You are talking about the All-Ireland defeat. It’s a testimony to this bunch of players that we’ve come back and gotten over that.
“Last Saturday’s game just wasn’t about winning and getting into a Munster final. It was about keeping the future of Waterford hurling alive.”
The gate now open, we pile in. Had this been spoken about?
“Well, we did. It was massive really. You had the Justin factor too. If we had faced into defeat last week it probably would have put Waterford hurling back donkey’s years.”
Mullane might have taken the juicy bait a few years back, but the recent criticism by RTÉ pundits Michael Duignan and Pete Finnerty over some over-elaborate fist-pumping by himself and Eoin Kelly (after winning frees) is laughed away.
“The analysts are there to do their job like you are here to report. They are entitled to their comments. I have no ill-feeling towards them. Sometimes, they give out great comments and other times they give out bad comments. That’s just the way they are.
“To be fair to Michael and Pete, there wasn’t a whole lot to comment on the previous week’s game. It was probably the only highlight out of a dour game.
“You do (get criticised), but that’s my game and I have been doing it over the course of the last couple of years. I am not going to change my way about me now. Why change now? I am 28. I think I will continue to do it.
“I think other players are doing it too, and I think the GAA needs a bit of that passion and sometimes it does lack in them areas. At the same time, every GAA player, there are different characters in all sports. That’s just the way the game is.”
John Mullane, hurler and sporting philosopher.
