Munster Hurling Championship Interview: Brendan Cummins talks to Keith Duggan about his 10 years as a senior hurler with Tipperary, and how he sees his 11th season going
Forty-eight hours to go and Brendan Cummins can hear every tick. Cahir is humming with signs of early-season tourism when he leaves the bank on Friday evening. His down-time will be spent painting. Not an oil-on-canvas tribute to the Games Administration Committee or anything, merely the walls of his house.
He is due to move to his home near the Ballybacon club field some time next month, as if life were not hectic enough. Painting is a chore, but he enjoys the silence.
It has been a strange few weeks. Against all expectations and his wishes, Cummins participated in the 10-goal league thriller in Croke Park a few weeks ago. It seemed cursed that such a flowing, low-contact exhibition of a match would rob his friend and regular full back Philip Maher of a year's worth of hurling.
"Like, there was no real stitching going on apart from those freak accidents," he marvels. "Forwards picking off passes to each other and lads just going for goals the whole time. There was a lot of time on the ball out there. I suppose for the purists it was great. It didn't seem too great to me at the time."
Word of Maher's long-term lay-off temporarily dampened spirits in the Tipperary camp, but the last few days have been dominated by the ban on Eamonn Corcoran that now leaves the favourites for tomorrow's game without two All Star calibre defenders.
"I thought what happened was just disgraceful. Fair enough, if someone does something wrong, they deserve punishment. But this happened on April 20th. Why reach a decision just now? Like, I know Eamonn is very distressed about it and waited up until half past two on Thursday morning waiting for news. It's all just very disillusioning, is what it is.
"Like, we all think that Sunday is the be-all and end-all of our lives. So they may as well be telling him he is out of a job. It's the same thing."
Cummins is among the most popular figures in hurling. Anyone doubting that an old sense of entitlement persists in Tipp hurling just has to talk with him for half an hour.
Although Ballybacon-Grange spawned shoeless Babs Keating, it is predominantly football country and, in retrospect, Cummins reckons he was lucky to make the grade at county level.
The key, he says, was being drafted on to the Tipperary under-14 panel. He was nobody and a scrawny whippet called Tommy Dunne was casting spells.
"The thing was then, I was on the list so the next year, they would take a look at you. Like, I was lucky enough to get into the slipstream of Tipp hurling. Once you get in there, it's up to yourself what you do. There were some fine young hurlers playing then - Frank McGrath got player of the tournament - but only Tommy and myself are playing senior now. It makes you think."
Babs gave him his first senior break, a league run in Cappoquin in 1993.
"Pat Fox and Nicky - all these lads that would be looking down at you from the walls of pubs." But they were friendly. Johnny Leahy introduced him to people.
"Well young fella. What's your name? Ah sure, you're the goalkeeper. You'll be grand."
Nearly 10 years on and Cummins, a former All Star and on his given season the best in the land, remains grateful for those few years.
At 28, he is old enough to be familiar with the raging days against Clare and young enough to say honestly that they were never his wars.
Clare were the new darlings of the game when he made his championship debut in 1995 and he was too busy developing his art to worry about his neighbours. Four goals whizzed by him thanks to the Limerick forwards in 1996, his toughest day since the recent madness in Croke Park.
As the years went on, Clare exerted a steely grip on their neighbours and, although Cummins could put the venom in context, he could never really feel it.
He is as close to Davy Fitzgerald as any goalkeeper in the country and, whereas once he was fascinated and a little overawed by the unique force of will Clare could exert on key occasions, he has come to appreciate the mutual rivalry as a once-in-a-generation phenomenon, a common bond almost. It is what pushes the fatigue away.
"In Páirc Uí Chaoimh especially, the pitch is a cauldron. Once we leave the dressing-room, all you see is two lines of Garda clearing a path for you to run across the tunnel underneath.
"And behind them there is about two or three hundred people all shouting. And the shouts bounce off the roof and come in on you. Then you go from the darkness of the tunnel to the field and it is just so bright. You never tire of that, you can't."
With 48 hours to go, though, the noise is a long way off. Friday night is peaceful and today he plans to watch the FA Cup before meeting up with the team for the journey to Cork.
Almost subconsciously, he will study the goalkeepers on the TV, a habit that comes naturally to him.
When Peter Schmeichel was king, Cummins would follow him. Now, he reckons Casillas is as good as they get. Within hurling, he could talk all day about his opposite numbers.
"But goalies have their own little club anyway. Everyone feels sympathy for one another. I get the same sinking feeling if a lad lets in a soft goal up the far end as when it happens myself. And that's not to come across all saintly, but when you see it, you get a flashback of what it is like.
"And it is a lonely spot at those times. You just have to accept that goals happen and get on with it because if you get hit with the heebie-jeebies, God, it can be a desperate place to be."
Tomorrow, Paul Curran makes his debut for Tipp at full back. Cummins has never played behind him before and admits it will be different as he has spent three seasons developing a relationship with Maher.
"The way it is now, though, it's a business. We all felt for Philip and still do for Eamonn, but the game still goes ahead at 4.15. There is no point in wishing certain lads were there.
"John Curran is a hell of a hurler and I reckon whatever problems Tipp have in Cork, John will not be one of them. This team is changing the whole time and this is a chance for lads like John.
"If he does his job, I suppose it will help me to do mine and that's the way it is. Goalkeeper and full back is about the strongest bond on the field."
The number ones on view tomorrow make an interesting case study. Cummins is as easy-going and mild-mannered as Davy Fitz is fast-talking and all pent-up. Different shapes and sizes. Goalkeepers are people too.
Funny, when the ball goes down the far end, it often gets quiet enough for Cummins to hear the observations from the terrace behind him. Clear and colourful enough to make his ears burn.
"Then you might hear a Tipp voice from up the back coming back at your man. It's great banter, but sure you just ignore it. You can let nothing distract you. Not in a game like this."
