Coady still as motivated as ever
Richard Coady in typically combative fashion in last year's Leinster Championship tie against Kildare champions Naas. Photo: INPHO/Lorraine O’Sullivan
On Saturday, Richie Coady will be looking for a 13th senior hurling championship medal. Since coming on as a sub when Mount Leinster Rangers won their first ever title in 2006, he has been an ever present in all of the club’s victories. He has seen players come and go and can rattle off the names of so many of the players he has lined up beside.
“I would be the elder of the statesmen. Eddie Byrne is not too far behind me and after that they are getting younger alright. Then you are going back a couple of years to the next few boys. Paul (Coady) would be there since he came back from Dubai. Michael Doyle. After that it is the Kevin Mcs, the Chris Nolans.” And how does he keep his focus and desire for success?
“Still as motivated as ever. Sport and hurling is a funny old thing. Twenty years ago all I wanted to do was win one county final with Mount Leinster Rangers. Now that we have won a few, you want to win as much as you can when you can.”
And has he ever felt that enough was enough? Bear in mind he also lined out with the Carlow senior hurlers this year too where he featured in three league and two Joe McDonagh Cup games.
“I suppose when you are here and able to tog out at the highest level, you want to win as much as you can. You always want that one extra. One more is the most important one.” Rangers looked like world beaters in the group stages. They filleted teams along the way and forwards feasted themselves on poor defences. Coady says this was not a reflection of where they were or, for that matter, what the opposition are at.
“In the earlier rounds we were going particularly well. The round-robin can be false enough in a sense. There is no massive jeopardy. You win a couple of games and you are safe enough. That safety net or jeopardy is not there so you can go out and express yourself fairly freely. Then semi-finals and finals are different when you have no safety net and everything is on the line,” he explains.
Coady knows that finals can take on a life of their own. Results can hinge on the ability of individuals not to get involved in something which could see a team lose a player to a red card or two yellows.
“Tensions can be high at times. Lads can be wound up. Things can happen early in a game. These things do happen and you would like to think nobody on either team will get a rush of blood to the head. You would like to think it will be fifteen on fifteen and it will be a cracker of a game,” the Rangers veteran reasons.
Coady has huge respect for St Mullins. He nearly knows enough about the opposition as he knows about his own team.
“St Mullins and ourselves know each other well at this stage. I think any form coming into the game or any form from the semi-finals goes out the window when you are playing a team you know so well and they know you so well.
As clichéd and all as it is, it could come down to a bit of luck on the day. We would be hoping that that break of a ball could fall our way."
