Galway already showing the signs of Shefflin’s singular focus

You could chill beer – and hearts – in the tunnel in Pearse Stadium regardless of what is happening to the world’s climate.

The sunshine never broaches that particular quarter. And it was in that dank atmosphere, standing outside the Galway dressing room, that Henry Shefflin gave his thoughts on the combustible encounter between Galway and Kilkenny on May Day.

Less than half an hour had passed since the final whistle and the already-infamous handshake between Shefflin and his former manager Brian Cody. The tense exchange would be subject to an intense bout of analysis and speculation even though both men dismissed it afterwards.

In the photographs Shefflin appears respectful and hesitant during the brief reunion with his manager. But now, he was clearly absorbed by the contours of the game as he answered the various questions.

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“The 15 minutes after half-time, Kilkenny started very well. But we have some great leaders emerging and started to figure it out. I just think when you look at the numbers on it, we had 41 shots and we converted 26 or something, so we had a 56 per cent efficiency rate. So that is probably letting us down a little bit and probably kept very much Kilkenny in the game, they were a little more efficient than us. But as I said, there wasn’t much in the game all during it.”

Quite how Shefflin found time to consult and memorise the data so soon after the match, with the drama of the handshake, the delight of the home crowd, television interviews and a brief visit to the dressingroom for a word with his players, is anyone’s guess. But somehow, he did.

Already, he had begun to figure his way through Galway’s strengths and weaknesses over the afternoon. The preternatural calm and self-possession of his playing days has become his calling card as manager.

If you think back through the long passage of Shefflin’s gilded career it is hard to recall examples of explicit emotion – uncontained outrage, yes, when his eye was badly injured by the butt of a hurl playing against Clare in 2004 and, in an entirely different era, a vivid demonstration of intent against Galway in the All-Ireland final of 2012. But most of the time, Shefflin appeared to navigate his way through the heat and dust of big days with crystal-clear thinking. So it went here.

On Saturday night, he reaches another vital moment in his senior managerial career. Croke Park was a second home to Kilkenny and Shefflin during the imperious decade. Like it or not, human nature and the gossip in everyone will be drawn to Cody and Shefflin – icon and protege – when they appear in Croke Park on Saturday evening.

Managing against your native county is always delicate and it was the psychological hurdle Shefflin had to clear when he decided to accept the Galway job. His was the most leftfield and unexpected managerial appointment in years.

Even Shefflin’s former Kilkenny team-mates, with whom he shares a WhatsApp group, had no inkling that the Galway move was even a possibility until he sent a message a few hours before the news was confirmed.

“We couldn’t believe it! Are you messing with us or what?” JJ Delaney told Sky Sport’s GAA coverage in recollection of the automatic response.

“But it was announced, then. We all just said, best of luck with it. It’s a big job. I’d love to see him going well. He’s gaining experience – selfishly from a Kilkenny point of view. He’ll eventually take over Kilkenny at intercounty whenever it is, in a few years down the road. So he’s gathering experience now, so he’ll bring it home. We’re saying to him, `make all the mistakes in Galway, all you want. Bring the experience back to Kilkenny’.”

Delaney was poking fun but the point stood. The consolation for Kilkenny hurling people is just that: painful as it may be to watch Shefflin managing Galway against his county team this summer, the day will come when he is theirs again.

Since his arrival in Galway, the focus has been completely on the development of the maroon team. When selector Damien Joyce was asked about the handshake this week, he sounded plausible when he said that Shefflin “didn’t make anything of it”.

“It happened. We moved on very quickly. I mentioned earlier now quick this was moving. Literally, there is no time. So, there was nothing made of it within the group and we moved on straight away. Does it add a little bit more intrigue to Saturday night’s game? It probably does.

“I think everybody will be very, very interested at the end of it. But for us, we are going into a Leinster final. Kilkenny are looking at this game and they are going for three-in-a-row [of] Leinsters, they are in their fifth final.

Joyce added: “For us, with a new team coming up and trying to go in there and win, it is a massive challenge. And, of course, there is an additional intrigue now with the Kilkenny factor.

“But Henry and Richie [O’Neill] since they have come to Galway they are very much well settled and at peace with the fact that this is a Galway job they are involved in. Their whole focus is on the Galway team and players and trying to get the best performance possible out of this team on Saturday night.”

That’s the important thing. This is presented as the lean time for Kilkenny, with seven summers slipping by since they landed their last All-Ireland, in 2015, at Galway’s expense. But Cody’s team is chasing a third Leinster title on the trot this evening.

Kilkenny are the last team to have knocked Limerick out of the championship (2019). And they come into this match nursing a healthy sense of righteous anger. If the handshake caused a stir in that round-robin game in Salthill, then the late free, awarded when Paddy Deegan came crashing through Thomas Monaghan to win Éanna Murphy’s puck-out, starkly split opinion. Was it a foul or a demonstration of legitimate aggression by a player intent on winning a high ball? Either way, there was nothing between the teams.

Shefflin would say afterwards that a lot of emotions were racing through his mind as he stood impassively on the sideline waiting for Conor Cooney to address his free. Foremost was the memory of his brother Paul, who died in March at the tragically early age of 41 after collapsing following a run.

Managing an intercounty team requires a furious level of mental and physical energy. In the days after the tragedy, there were fears in Galway that Shefflin might decide to step down.

It was only in attending the funeral that many of the squad players got a true sense of the distance Shefflin was covering twice and thrice weekly to fulfil his role as manager. To drive that route, either side of a demanding day job and to then find the requisite energy to train the team is a heavy commitment.

The route between Galway and Kilkenny is much the same as the hurling relationship: complex and multilayered. The grace with which Shefflin publicly dealt with the grief was noticeable and only deepened admiration for him within Galway.

By the time the championship came around, the cold fire in the eyes was again evident and his passion for the Galway project undimmed. That he has was able to invoke the memory of his brother in that moment in such a natural way suggested that he feels at home in his adopted county.

It’s still too early to forecast the ultimate outcome of Shefflin’s Galway era, not least because Limerick now present the same towering obstacle as the Shefflin-era Kilkenny once did. And Galway hurling teams are a notoriously tricky read.

Reimagining a Galway team that would be without the residual genius of Joe Canning was the first task. What has been noticeable in their performances is the sharp revival in form in senior players like Conor Cooney, Joseph Cooney and Conor Whelan and the startling performances of Thomas Monaghan. He burst into the senior squad with impeccable timing as the team broke its 29-year losing All-Ireland streak and is flourishing some five years after making his senior debut.

It’s obvious the players are enjoying life under Shefflin. And while Salthill has never felt like a natural home for Galway hurling, the place was humming in the aftermath of the Kilkenny win.

“That is all we ask of these lads, that they give everything,” Shefflin said that day.

“And they did that. And the crowd got behind them, there was that connection we are trying to build and it was great to see that support – the home venue probably played its part as well.”

But the most encouraging quality has been a radiant collective commitment and an unflagging work rate and there is no secret as to the model for that approach.

“To be honest, they have been the benchmark over a number of years,” said Damien Joyce this week.

“Thinking of games we played Kilkenny in, they are always going to bring that. Any team that is successful in any code at this stage are going after that area. From number 15 back, you are trying to set up so your 15 is as good a defender as your corner back.

“The amount of bodies in the middle of the field, the hits that come in and the physicality in the game is massive. But it is the foundation block you need to get right. It is a huge area of the game and all teams are focusing on it. And it goes a long way to the result, that work rate in the middle of the field. So far the lads have not been found wanting in those stakes.”

That work ethic always been a cardinal virtue of Brian Cody teams. And building a team of comparable substance is the best compliment Henry Shefflin could pay his former mentor.

It promises sparks this evening.

Don’t look away.