Fáilte chuig gaa.ie - suíomh oifigiúil CLG

Hurling

hurling

Seamus Callanan: 'It's great to get back and re-focus'

Seamus Callanan

Seamus Callanan

By John Harrington

Seamus Callanan enjoyed the celebrations that followed Tipperary’s 2016 All-Ireland Final victory over Kilkenny, but didn’t bask in them for too long.

Even on the team holiday to Miami over the Christmas and New Year he didn’t reminisce all that much about the achievement.

By the he was already focused on future challenges, which is why Saturday’s Allianz Hurling League opener against Dublin couldn’t come quickly enough for him.

“Inter-county players they need to be challenged, you know?”, says Callanan.

“We all love playing the game. A week or two after it you're back with your club.

“If you stop or even leave the hurley down for two weeks then all of a sudden you're getting the itch again. You want to go back, you want to go back.

“That's the competitive nature of people playing hurling. Obviously you'd have your few nights out and that and go on holidays and that. They're great times and it's great to have them, but it's great to get back now and refocus and re-set the mind.

“I think everyone is very focused. We obviously want to achieve a lot more now. We'll take it step by step, it's back to hard work again. We had a good break over the winter so everyone is ready to go again. We're just hungry for the year to start and to get going.”

“We all want to win. And even though we won the All-Ireland last year, we don't want to stop at that.

“We know it's going to have to go up a level this year compared to last year. It's all step by step. The League is very important for us to start off with. We're not looking past any match really, we want to win every game.”

Winning this year’s League title is high on Tipperary’s agenda. They haven’t managed to do so since 2008, and have lost three close Finals to Kilkenny in the interim.

Regardless of how the League goes, though, the success or otherwise of their season will depend on their ability to retain the Liam MacCarthy Cup.

Seamus Callanan

Seamus Callanan

Tipp haven’t won back to back All-Irelands since 1964/’65 so following one good year with another one has clearly been an issue for them in the past.

Callanan is hopeful they’ll be just as fired up this year as they were last year though because they’ve so often experienced the pain of retreating to a losing dressing-room after a big match.

“For Tipperary, we've lost enough of All-Irelands to really appreciate what it means to win one,” he says.

“When you see the comparison between the two and you're in the dressing-room after the two of them, winning and losing, there's only one dressing-room you want to be in.

“That should be motivation enough to get going and to push on really well for the next year again.”

How Tipperary go this year is likely to be index-linked to Callanan’s own form.

He’s been the best forward in the country for the past three years and if he can maintain the same scoring averages in 2017 then Tipperary will be a hard team to beat.

But even though he’s invaluable to their cause, he doesn’t feel any extra pressure to perform every time he goes out.

“No, absolutely not,” says Callanan. “We have a lot of players there that can stand up to the plate. There's no pressure on any individual there. You go out and play hurling to enjoy yourself and that's what I try to do every day I play.

“Sometimes you won't score as much as you do in other days, but you have to take that too. Once you're enjoying the game,that's the main thing. That's what I play it for. I don't find pressure in any occasion.

“I work hard in training and I don't ever leave any stone unturned. If it doesn't work out for me on any given day, that's the way the game played out. Somebody else I'm sure will stand up.

"I don't ever put pressure on myself in that regard.”