Gavin Cummiskeyhears why the former Galway minor panellist still sees himself as a hurler – just not a good one anymore

I GREW up in a hurling family and a hurling community, in a GAA town, if you like. Really, rugby was only for the off-season. To keep fit in the winter.

I have been hurling as long as I can remember. It was inherited, I suppose, as a good few of my cousins played with Galway at under-age and senior. Yeah, it was instilled from a very early age. My brother, Ivan, is a year older and we played together a lot for Portumna and so does my younger brother, Conor. They are both decent hurlers.

Of course, it wasn’t just our family. The Cannings live 400 yards down the road and the Hayes’ live 500 yards the other way so we are nestled in the middle of these famous hurling families. When we were younger we played hurling together all the time.

At around 14 rugby came into the equation. In Portumna Community School if there was enough numbers then a season of rugby was organised. Twenty five names were needed to sign up and sporadically this happened. The year ahead of me had some success so we carried it on.

I never played senior for Portumna, like Ivan, although I did play hurling seriously up to minor, even making the Galway panel in 2000 when we beat Cork in the All-Ireland final.

We had some team, with Eoin Lynch, Kevin “Chunky” Hayes, Damien Hayes, Shane Kavanagh, Ger Farragher, Richie Murray, Tony Óg Regan, Adrian Cullinane all moving in to the senior ranks.

After minor I gave up straight away. By that stage I was struggling to balance the two sports. I was selected for the Ireland youths rugby team until May that year, then went straight into the minor championship.

In my first two years playing rugby I struggled. Basically, I wasn’t that good but by around 16 I began to improve and perform at a decent level. I even began looking forward to the off-season when I could put down the hurley and play rugby again.

Although, when it came to a choice, I went with hurling. I missed a Connacht Schools game once as I was committed to the Portumna minors in a championship game.

There were extenuating circumstances. When we were minors tragedy struck when Damien Hayes’ brother Keith was killed in a car accident. Keith was an excellent hurler and many saw him as the next Joe Cooney.

It was never mentioned but we went out to win the minor championship, like we had done the year before, for Keith. The lads decided this without anyone having to say a thing. The club took away the number 13 jersey that year in his memory.

It just felt wrong to be playing rugby that day, even for Connacht Schools.

I am delighted to see Portumna achieve so much success in recent times. Coming from a professional rugby background I can appreciate how much these amateur hurlers put in. The commitment is unreal when you consider they also have careers. There is a big self-belief but essentially they work bloody hard to become champions.

It is evident from the sideline that this mentality has been transferred into the Galway set-up this season. I missed the Waterford defeat as we had a training session and while it was unexpected I feel it will make them stronger in the long term.

If you ask the lads around Connacht they will call me a hurler and I suppose this is true; whenever the weather is nice I will have all the Kiwi and Aussies in our squad out tipping around with the hurleys. Giving them a basic education.

I’m proud of where I come from. I may not play anymore but still feel I know what I’m talking about when it comes to hurling. I just took a different road. I certainly have no regrets.

Yeah, I still see myself as a hurler. Just not a very good one anymore!