Hayes enjoying double-act with childhood friend Buckley

By John Harrington

After just three matches of championship hurling together for Cork, the St. Finbarr’s double-act of Brian Hayes and William Buckley is shaping up to be one of the deadliest attacking duos in the country.

They’ve struck 10 points each in championship hurling so far this year and already seem to have an instinctive understanding about how best to play off one another.

That’s no real surprise considering their back story. Hayes is three years older than Buckley but the two of them have been hurling together all their lives.

“I’ve been playing with William since we were young fellas,” says Hayes.

“We live in the same estate so we'd have been pucking around there daily. Anyone that lives around there would know that we'd be pucking around on the green there.

“I suppose we might have done it more when we were younger because things are so busy now, but it's been great to see him doing so well. He's a good friend and a great team-mate for everyone."

If Hayes is the broadsword of the Cork attack with his size and strength, then Buckley is the rapier – fast, sharp, and deadly.

He looks relatively diminutive when you see him stand beside Hayes, but his club-mate can attest to the fact that his speed and skill is also complemented by strength.

“People think he's small but he's not that small and he's definitely strong,” says Hayes.

“He'd be up there in his rankings in the gym. The weight he's lifting, it's not like he'd be anywhere near the weakest or the smallest on the panel.

“It's the same with other elements like sprinting and stuff like that. And his hurling is obviously one of his strong points.

“Everyone has their own attributes that they bring and the best part of their game is going to be different to someone else's. But it's great to have a mix as well at the same time.

“William has been unbelievable since he came in. No different to any other young lad who has come in, the drive and the want to get better is there.

“The work ethic that he's shown, first of all within the group and then outside of the group, he's been a credit to himself and it's been great to see him progress.

“He's only on the panel since last year so the way he's progressed even from then, I think he can still reach another level in the future.

“But he's doing very well, he's working really hard all the time and it's a great personal thing to see him do well because obviously I know him very well."

Both Hayes and Buckley were key players on the St. Finbarr’s football team that won the Cork championship last year and came agonisingly close to beating eventual All-Ireland champions, Dingle, in the Munster Final.

Very few senior inter-county hurlers play Gaelic football at such a high level, but Hayes is convinced he has successfully applied lessons learned from playing football to the small ball code.

"Definitely. There are different movements in football that different forwards do.

“I'd always be watching football matches and looking at different forwards and what they're doing and what you can bring into your own game.

“From playing myself, there's different runs that you'd make in football that other players in hurling might not do.

“I suppose the kick-outs and the puck-outs might be similar, trying to get yourself a yard and stuff like that, the way you might use your body against someone else.

“I've learned off good players out in the Barrs, the great players you'd be looking up to in football.

“Like Ian Maguire, he would have taught me different ways to like catch a ball or use your own body to win a kick-out.

“That's definitely something that I think I've brought over to my hurling game because you're always just trying to evolve and develop that."

The frightening thing for opposition full-back lines is that both Hayes and Buckley are still very much works in progress and likely still have plenty of room for further improvement.

"I think you're always trying to get better,” says Hayes. “Every night you're going training, you're just constantly looking at things that you might be looking to improve on, whether it be from a training match or from a match at the weekend.

“There's always elements of your game that you can improve and you're always chasing. I suppose it doesn't take long to come down to earth and to be humbled after a performance that you might be happy with in training when you're making top-quality defenders the whole time.

“It can be so competitive in training that if one of them beat me on a night, you'd be only raring to go the next night to beat them or whether it be in the alley.

“As an individual I suppose you're always constantly trying to get better and there's always room for growth.”