*Paul Flanagan brings the ball forward with Eoin Guilfoyle keeping tabs. Photograph: Gerard O’Neill
Hurling is no longer the number one priority in Paul Flanagan’s life and he’s enjoying the game much more as a result.
Ballyea are chasing their third Clare SHC title this Sunday when they face off with Inagh/Kilnamona. For their 2018 win over Cratloe, Flanagan missed out due to a knee injury which kept him sidelined for that campaign, this weekend they are without Tony Kelly.
Their cruel role reversal is something the duo have discussed. “We’ve spoke about it a bit, we travel a lot together, we’re in the car together a lot whether it was Clare or Ballyea, we’d be hopping ball about a few different things, we spoke about the fact I was in the stand for 2018 and Tony is there now, when he said to me that the operation was imminent, I just said to him to do what was best for him and make sure that whatever you do that you do it right, he’s been a great help, it’s been brilliant to have him on the sideline and listening to different nuggets that you can get, they are so short that you can get an insight into something which might click with a few guys”.
A two-time All-Ireland U21 winner and a member of the Clare panel crowned All-Ireland champions in 2013, Paul rejoined the county panel last September after receiving a call from Brian Lohan, earning his championship debut in November. This year, he has been ever-present in the full-back line alongside Rory Hayes and Conor Cleary and clearly has been enjoying his hurling.
He told The Clare Echo, “It’s been built out of a couple of years of hard work and trying to get to a better place overall which is mentally too. I’ve really enjoyed it, looking at it you just want to take it as it comes, good things will happen when you let them happen, for years I was probably forcing things a lot and you make hurling your number one in many shapes but it has swung around a little and I’d be a bit more balanced now”.
From February to December of last year, the Ard Scoil Rís Irish and PE teacher completed a masters in performance psychology at UL. Since his graduation, he has assisted with Clare U14, U15 and U16 teams on the request of Donal Moloney while he is also working in tandem with a number of individual athletes. “I placed a lot of emphasis on hurling being the be all and end all, I wasn’t as aware of myself and what was happening even during games, something would go against you and your whole thing would fall apart because you were placing such an emphasis on it, I started chipping away at it and started reading more myself, then I got the interest to go back to UL and do the Masters in Performance Psychology, that was brilliant, I really enjoyed it, I gained a huge amount as a player, simple things and techniques in what athletes were using and evidence based stuff,” he recalled.
While Clare’s success was to be savoured but the pressure to deliver and perform in subsequent years did have an impact. “Everyone knows a lot of success came to us quite early mainly with Clare, between the U21s and 2013 when you look at the photo on the wall and you say I was twenty years of age, we were very young, in some ways we were fast-tracked with a very good set-up and an excellent coach but it was something that was early for us in terms of our hurling career. There was a good few hard moments after that and times when you weren’t performing to the level you were previously and you just didn’t know why, it’s no more than anyone going to work if you are heaping on more pressure on yourself saying I have to do this and that then the more the squeeze comes on in terms of the balance and it’s really hard to execute, there was a lot of that over the few years and it took a bit of time to figure it out”.
This year’s club campaign has “went on for so long, it’s been spread out,” the Ballyea full-back felt. As such it isn’t any great surprise that he prefers the format used in recent years as opposed to the 2021 equivalent. “I prefer the format that was there before which would reward you for winning, I think there is a bit more of a bite to it and a bit more of a competitive edge, even if you lose one game you can get back on the road by winning again, I think it worked really well and players liked it. The group side of things has maybe prolonged it a bit more”.
Since he began lining out with the Ballyea seniors a decade ago, a leadership role has been assumed by the TG4 analyst but he admitted that he is conscious that there are different ways in which to lead. “You learn as you go, I’ve stepped back a small bit more for the simple reason that for the whole thing to be sustainable it’s more like consistency over time and consistency in how you interact with other guys over time instead of being the person that is always talking, you take different things from other players like that and you don’t have to be talking all the time, in some ways energy is everything whether it’s your job or hurling. I really enjoy with the younger guys here, it’s the same with Clare, it has given great energy and you have great craic with them, that is the way I look at it a bit more”.
His approach and thinking may have altered but Flanagan remains steadfast as ever in his desire to succeed.
