Big step awaits a wily old Fox

LEINSTER CLUB SHC FINAL:DAMIAN FOX'S earliest memory is standing in with the Tullamore hurling team, moments before the Offaly county final, with a blue and white flag in his hand. His father, Eamonn, stands next to him, with a hurl in hand, readying himself to play at midfield. It's 1964, he's three years old, and as club mascot, Fox provides the little extra luck they desire, as Tullamore win only their ninth Offaly title since 1909.

Fast forward 13 years. Age 16, Fox is again standing in with the Tullamore hurling team, this time as a player. Any day now, he thinks, there’ll be an Offaly title on my mantelpiece too. It’s 1977. Instead, as luck steadily abandons him, the years pass slowly by, then pass quickly. Fast forward again to the start of the 2009 season; Tullamore still haven’t won an Offaly title in the intervening 45 years, and Fox, naturally, is now aged 48.

Every year the AIB Club Championship throws up a tale of spirit and perseverance that captures the imagination, but not even the fairies could have written this one. Last month, with his father and other members of the 1964 winning team watching tearfully from the stands, Fox finally collected that Offaly title, beating Kilcormac-Killoughey in the county final, having vanquished the likes of Birr and St Rynagh’s in the previous rounds. Fox, playing in goal, had fittingly kept a clean sheet.

Goalkeeping is the position he probably knows best, but over his 32 years playing with Tullamore, Fox played in a variety of positions, mostly corner forward. It’s his natural strike of the ball, from any position, which earned him the nickname “the Gift” – and Tullamore will be looking towards that gift yet again, on home ground, when taking on Ballyhale Shamrocks in Sunday’s Leinster Club hurling final.

Given their long wait for senior hurling success, it’s a first Leinster final for Tullamore, and although he’s a man in high demand, Fox is happy to recount his story. Not only is he polite about it, he soon reveals an infectious enthusiasm for his sport. Retirement, with or without an Offaly title, was never an option. “No, I never once stopped hurling down through the years,” he says. “I’ve always been playing, and I suppose just love hurling. Everything about the game. I love the craic in the dressingroom as well, going down to training, all that kind of stuff.

“I think as well an awful lot of players give it up because they think ‘I’m at this age now, I should give it up’. I look at the likes of George Foreman, Sugar Ray Leonard. They come back at age 44, 45 and box at the highest level. I don’t see this any different.

“It’s not just about looking after yourself. I’ve never had any serious injury. A lot of lads do have to give it up because of injury, but I think a lot more just get lazy, don’t want to go out in the rain anymore. That was never a problem for me. I love the training, love going to the hurling field, and I don’t find the recovery hard, at all. I do what I can do, and stay at it until I can’t do it anymore.

“Of course I never imagined I’d be a part of a Tullamore team preparing for a Leinster final, but I always thought the team would make it happen, someday. There have been a lot of good hurling teams in Tullamore down through the years, who just couldn’t get it together to win an Offaly championship.”

There have been a couple of turning points, starting with last year’s appointment of former All-Ireland winner Kevin Martin as player-manager (and now appointed as Westmeath manager). Also, take Martin, Fox, and Pete Kelly out of the team, and the average age of Tullamore drops way down to the early 20s.

“A lot happened during the year. Tullamore is a dual club, and promotes football and hurling equally. Around Tullamore football is normally the stronger option. But this year they didn’t get off to a very good start, and went out quite early. We got a good run at it, and picked up some momentum. At the same time we’d be pushing each other, rising each other, and I think that’s made for a very strong and resilient group.

“I think the big turning point was against St Rynagh’s in the quarter-final. We were eight or nine points down in the second half. Kevin came on as a sub, and galvanised the whole team.

“We gained a good bit of self-belief from that, and carried it into the Birr match. We fancied ourselves, even though no else did. But Birr have been the benchmark in Offaly hurling, in Ireland for that matter, for years, and the lads just seemed to step up to the challenge.

“I know this is a bigger step again on Sunday. But we’ll show Ballyhale the same respect that we showed Birr. We’ll play them the same way. We’ll see what happens. Our spirit will be right. Whether we have the armoury is another question.”