Brian Hurley: 4-18 and counting in the Munster football championship
Cork footballer, Brian Hurley, when Sports Direct unveiled its ‘Born To Play’ campaign for the Championship. Picture: INPHO/Dan Sheridan
AN eighth Munster championship campaign beckons for Brian Hurley, who has accumulated 4-18 in the red jersey.
Tomorrow marks his 16th game on the provincial scene in a career dogged by serious hamstring injuries, which blighted his statistics.
Who knows what the numbers would look like had the 29-year-old Castlehaven forward not missed the entire 2017 season and only making fleeting appearances the following year?
Hurley is bursting to get going once more, partly due to an injury-impacted league, when he started against Kildare only for a clash of heads to end his afternoon just before the hour in Thurles.
“I got a bad concussion and swollen jaw and went through the return to play protocols. I missed three or four training sessions,” he said.
It forced Hurley out of the Laois game, but he was on the bench for the wins over Clare and Westmeath, when he scored 1-6 between the pair.
Ironically, Hurley replaced young Cathail O’Mahony shortly before the break against Westmeath and he must sit out the rest of the season.
The Castlehaven star looked primed for action, scoring 1-4, all bar a free from play, and being denied a second goal by the crossbar.
Apart from O’Mahony, Cork are also missing Aidan Browne and Killian O’Hanlon, long-term. Hurley, more than most, knows how tough the road to recovery is following his own travails.
“It’s not easy. They’re young players with massive potential, same as Killian.
“The real thing is how you accept it. You must work with it.
“The biggest think I learned is that people forget about you when you’re injured.
“You’re starting at zero and it’s about how you react to the situation you’re in will tell a lot about you as an individual.
“In a way, it definitely makes you a better person. You’re mentally tougher and you become a different animal.
“It’s what happens when you put nine months hard work in in a dark garage and what that does to you as a person and what you can bring to a team.
“It’s mentally very challenging because all you want to do is play football for Cork, especially at that age, when you don’t see it coming.
“The physical part of it is easy. It’s the mental aspect which is the hardest, getting your head right and it’s important to have the right people around you as well.
“You must zone in and sacrifice a lot because you’re almost back down to zero while everyone else is training at an elite level.
“We spoke about it. I just said it’s day one of rehab and you just get on with it, taking it step by step and ticking the boxes as you go along. If you take it in small blocks, it’s much easier.”
Hurley has learned the hard way that smarter is better than harder when it comes to training, especially after serious injury.
“The hardest challenge I have is when I’ve done enough I always want to do more and push myself to the limit. It’s one of my downfalls.”
Cork are fortunate to have a top notch medical team, though he may not always agree with their assessments.
“We do have the hard conversations sometimes like when they tell me not to train on a particular night.
“That’s very hard to accept because all I want to do is play football.
“I had two surgeries on the biggest muscle and it’s hard, but I intend to keep pushing. I’m not too far away."
1-1 v Limerick, won 3-17 to 0-8; 0-5, 2f, v Clare, won 1-20 to 1-11; 0-2 v Kerry, lost 1-16 to 0-17.
0-1f v Tipperary, won 0-16 to 1-11; 0-4, 3f, v Kerry, lost 0-24 to 0-12.
0-1 v Clare, won 1-20 to 1-8.
0-1 v Tipperary, lost 3-15 to 2-16.
2 Injured.
Sub v Tipperary, 0-1, won 1-17 to 0-9.
2-0 v Limerick, won 3-18 to 0-6; 1-0 v Kerry, lost 1-19 to 3-10.
0-1 ‘mark’ v Kerry, won 1-12 to 0-13; 0-1 v Tipperary, lost 0-17 to 0-14.
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