Players flying in from afar in the club’s hour of need

Newport’s Odhran Floyd came from Australia. His team-mate Sean O’Brien came from Thailand. Sean Treacy’s club-men Darragh Kennedy and Brian Carey both travelled from the United Arab Emirates.

By Niall McIntyre

It’s a small world nowadays, and the one thing they all have in common is that they flew home for last week’s premier intermediate hurling relegation final, with the aim of keeping their clubs up.

It’s a thorny issue between the cost and team morale. Do clubs have that kind of money to be spending? Is it fair that a player goes straight onto a team having missed training? But sometimes desperate times call for desperate measures.

Sean Treacy’s manager Ger O’Toole is conflicted having flown his two men in from Dubai. Retaining their status in Tipperary’s second tier is of utmost importance to him but he’s also conscious of the financial side of things.

Interestingly he says the club probably wouldn’t have flown Kennedy and Carey home were things going better, were they playing in a county semi-final instead.

But relegation is where they found themselves and between players, management, and club officers, they resolved that bringing the lads home was the right thing to do.

“You’re fighting on your back when you’re in relegation,” says O’Toole.

“Financially, it makes no sense, but that’s what we did, and that’s what many clubs will do to try and preserve their place.”

Colin Fennelly jetted in from Dubai twice in a fortnight to play for Shamrocks Ballyhale before they were knocked out of the Kilkenny senior hurling championship. Galway’s Johnny Glynn has done it numerous times for Ardrahan. Each player has their own story.

Former Tipperary hurler O’Brien had to organise a week’s cover in the gym he manages in Thailand.

Odhran Floyd hadn’t been home in a year and took it as another opportunity to see family and friends, having come home in similar circumstances in 2023.

But this time he only managed to squeeze one training session in before the game, off the back of a flight from the other side of the world.

“We got the team together and said, ‘look lads, what do we want,” says his club manager Tim Floyd, the former Tipperary GAA secretary.

“Everybody wanted to win the game and to give we every chance to win it.

“They knew some lads were going to be left off the team if we flew the lads home, but they were all behind it.

“Ultimately, we wouldn’t have done it unless they were willing and unless the team wanted them back.”

“It’s a big inconvenience for the two lads,” he adds.

“It really is nearly a whole week gone with the travelling and everything so that’s not easy. But they freed themselves up.”

No club wants to go down; it can take them a long time to come back up, but Ger O’Toole has his reservations about the trend of flying players home.

“As a club, you’ve to try and throw the kitchen sink at it,” he said.

“If you lose, people would be saying why didn’t you make the effort when you could have, so you have to cover yourself that way.

“It was a last chance saloon. It’s so hard to win at any grade in Tipperary, and if you go down, trying to come back up is not simple.

“There are no guarantees. But, If I’m being honest, I’m not sure I support it. I just wonder where it’s going to end up in ten years.

“Costs of running a club are already out of control. Physio bills, medical bills, coaches now coming along with managers, goalkeeping coaches and S&C as well.

“Certain clubs then have corporate sponsors, and that sets a precedent for the rest.

“What’s stopping a player going out to Australia for argument’s sake and saying, ‘look I’ll come home whenever you need me.’ He could be an important player, keeping fit and sharp, they’re all doing a bit of hurling over there now… but that puts awful pressure on a club.

“Your hands are tied in a way. You just don’t want it to become the norm because the cost of it is unsustainable for many clubs.”

O’Toole describes the talk surrounding the whole thing as a ‘nightmare’ in the build-up to both the drawn game and the replay.

“All you’re being asked all week and the week before is ‘are the two boys coming home?’

“If they did want to come home for a semi-final, we’d just be saying ‘lads, look, work it out yourselves.’ Then they wouldn’t be sure if they’d be playing if they did come home.

“But in this instance, if you do bring them home, and pay the money, you almost feel compelled to play them.”

The last thing players and clubs expect in a situation like this is that they’ll have to do it all over again, but as luck would have it, Treacys and Newport drew their relegation final and now they’re back to square one.

The funny thing is Floyd, O’Brien and all in Newport were delighted to get another chance, whether that meant another long flight home or not.

The replay is this Saturday at The Ragg, and while not set in stone, it would hardly be a surprise if the four lads lined out again.

“To do it twice in the space of two weeks isn’t simple,” Floyd added.

“We were glad to get the replay, they had the chance to win it at the end, not us,” he says, referencing a late Treacy’s shot that went wide.

“Whether we’ll have the boys the next day is another thing - at the minute, we don’t know if they can come back, but as a club we were glad to get a second chance. That’s what it means to us to hold our status.

“You would just worry if we drop…we’ve been down for twelve or fourteen years in the past, trying to get back up is difficult and that’s the worry.

“The lads themselves probably see the travelling as a two/three year stint, so they want to come back to a winning team too. So, while they are a long way away, they’re still a part of the team as far as we’re concerned.

“We’ve a lot of young players coming through in the next few years and you want to have the club at the highest level possible when they come through.”

That’s why they do it. Money, jet-lag, inconvenience…they’re no match for the pull of the club.