Former Galway hurler Cyril Donnellan pictured at the 2018 Croke Park Charity challenge launch.
By Michael Devlin
Cyril Donnellan’s decision to call time on his ten-year Galway hurling career came during a pensive three hour wait in an hospital emergency room last November.
In the aftermath following the county’s first All-Ireland hurling title in 29 years, Donnellan cracked two ribs while on club duty for Pádraig Pearses.
Having played a bit-part role under Michael Donoghue in recent seasons, the veteran had planned to hang up the hurl at the end of the 2016 season, with injuries beginning to take their toll.
Instead Donoghue made him an offer to come back into the panel in March of last year, having wintered well and stayed injury-free. That persistence paid off, and the reward of a Celtic Cross medal in September influenced Donnellan to stay on for one more year.
But waiting on the X-ray results that evening allowed him some “me-time” to put things into perspective.
“I kind of made my decision that day,” Donnellan told GAA.ie. “I thought after September that the run of form and the run of no injuries for July and August, that that would happen for a full year next year, and I started thinking of the probability of that happening was very slim.
“I met Micheal a few weeks later and he probably knew what I was coming with and asked me to see would I get involved in the coaching side of things with the Under 21s, although he wasn’t the manager.
“I was delighted to get involved in that. From talking to past players, it can be a dip when you leave that and it’s a void you have to fill with something, so I filled it with a bit of coaching. I’ve been busy with that, it’s been enjoyable but different. Obviously, nothing beats playing, but a great experience at the same time.
“I was just struggling with injuries. Although I’m not overly old - I’m only 32 - but just the intensity of training. You have 20 and 21-year-olds there and even when I met Micheal, I’d a list of all the forwards Galway have at the minute. I just felt there was a few in the early 20s there that could push on, and I placed all that on the table.
“When I was in there in the early stages of my career I was in there as a ball-winner and we have great ball-winners at the minute so that was the basis of my decision.”
Cyril Donnellan during the 2016 All Ireland SHC Semi-Final against Tipperary at Croke Park.
Life outside of the Galway setup though has allowed Donnellan to soak up the atmosphere of this year’s build-up to the final, and while his connection to the current team is still very strong, he is careful to give his former team-mates plenty of space as they attempt to capture back-to-back Liam MacCarthy Cups.
“You can get involved in various stuff, I was at a club ‘Up For The Match’ on Monday night and it’s great to catch the atmosphere around the county prior to a game. I never got a chance to do that.
“You’d be in contact with the players but at the same time you wouldn’t be trying to share the experiences you have during the day, meeting people and that, with them. I think on match week with players, it’s just head down.
“I wouldn’t be haggling down the phone but if you want to meet for a coffee, I would meet a few of them, yeah.”
Galway’s run to Sunday’s final has been arduous, with two replays with Kilkenny and Clare adding further to the Tribesmen’s mileage count. The ability to come through those extra challenges to contest for the big prize has impressed Donnellan, despite having to withstand their fair share of hairy moments along the way.
“They would have probably preferred not to have played one of the replays. They’ve a lot of games played now, especially when they’ve an older team than Limerick.
“When we go back and look at Kilkenny of old, they blitzed teams as well many’s a time. The only thing is, Kilkenny were very good at keeping the cushion, whereas Galway coughed up leads at times. They probably wouldn't have been overly happy with that but even when they've been coughing up leads they've still been keeping their own scoreboard ticking over.
“It's not as if they've completely gone out of games. I even felt with the Leinster final replay that some of the goals that Kilkenny got maybe went against the grain. We were still doing very good hurling I thought.
“I feel that they've done absolutely brilliant to come back as defending All-Ireland champions. Obviously when you are All-Ireland champions, everyone wants to beat you and everyone that meets you meets you head on and fronts up to you.
“Obviously that puts pressure on referees as well and the flow of games, but I think they've dealt with all of that absolutely brilliantly to get back to this weekend.”
