By Kieran Murphy

LESS than 10 minutes into this Leinster senior club quarter-final showdown on Sunday, Raharney full-forward John Shaw sidled up in front of Jack Kavanagh. Brushing against the midfielder, it was a clear effort to provoke the St Mullins man. It is also a territorial gesture. This time there was no reaction from the visiting captain as he looked over Shaw’s shoulder as if there was no-one there. Changed times.
“Hurling is all about discipline. I have done it myself and the man (manager PJ Delaney) who came in has worked on that. I still have to work at it, but a switch of the brain and you could be gone.
“Look, we expected a tough game. Two years ago we got it up here but we said we would focus on hurling. Just like we did a few weeks ago (the Carlow county final) and we came out on top.”
Kavanagh was also ending a career sequence of never winning in Mullingar. The thought of yet another defeat drove him and now that the losing run has been halted they are looking forward with confidence to a home semi-final against Dublin champions Cuala.
“In the last couple of years we couldn’t get a win with club or county. I couldn’t pick a better bunch of lads to do it. We have won Carlow for the last three years but we have taken the next step so we can look forward to the next game and we are going to hit this hard.”
A first half Robbie Greville goal had the potential to bury any ambitions St Mullins had of leaving Westmeath with a win. The Carlow champions took that hammer blow and came back strongly to draw level at the break.
“They got the goal which put them five points up. We knew it was going to be a battle and we dug in the heels. Point by point, we pegged them back.”
Kavanagh maintained he was confident as St Mullins came out for the second half. He pointed out a number of small but vital moments which culminated in overall victory.
That block Paul made down there was unbelievable and then Ger Coady shouldered another player over the line. That is the stuff champions are made of. It is a privilege to hurl on the same field as them.
“We knew we were not coming out of here without a victory. It was in the balance for a while but eventually we got over the line.”