Hynes ready for another war

Hurling

Mattie Hynes describes himself as “a hurling and football man”. The captain of the Cavan hurlers, who grew up in Dublin before moving to his mother’s home place of Mullahoran, started his sporting journey in soccer, spending a year with Bohs in his early teens, but once introduced to Gaelic games as a 15-year-old, he knew he had found what he was looking for.

Two days on from leading the team to an extraordinary win over Louth, Hynes smiles when asked about how he got started with the camán.

“I don’t know the politically correct way of saying this but I just realised soccer was just too soft for me. I went out and played football and hurling and I just picked it up, it had that physicality that I loved. I completely turned back on soccer, I have no love for it.

“I don’t follow soccer in any way, I am a hurling and football man now. I found my niche in life, the physicality and the battles you get into.

“In my own mind, it is a battle, it’s a physical game and you’re going to get hit. It spurs you on when you get a hit, it pumps up the adrenaline. I said to the lads, it’s fight or flight and your brain decides which you are going to do. I just think in those games you have to stand and fight.”

Hynes brings that credo with him on to the field, in both codes. Hit, get hit, keep moving forward. “You have to take it and give it,” he says, “within the rules. It’s a hard game.”

When the Celt spoke to him on Monday night, he was nursing a few bruises but he wouldn’t swap them, he said. Not for the world.

“It’s surreal, it’s finally hitting home today that we are going to make our way to Croker for an All-Ireland final. I’m beyond happy, it’s every Gaels’ dream to get into the hallowed ground of Croker. We have a big week of prep now, a few war wounds but here, niggles, good luck – they’ll be alright!

“I wouldn’t worry about it when you’re going to be walking into Croke Park on Saturday.”

In all his years, Hynes had never experienced a battle as fierce as Saturday’s – the heat, the rock-hard sod and the intensity of the exchanges left him gasping.

At one point, he says, he turned to say something to clubmate Dominic Crudden but the words would not come out.

“It was easily, by far, in all the years of football and hurling, the toughest conditions I’ve played in. I remember playing Bredagh in the Ulster quarter-final in Cootehill once and myself and Killian the Gunner were barely able to talk but Saturday beat all. The conditions were beyond anything I’ve ever faced, the heat, it was unbearable.

“At half-time I felt grand but in the third quarter, a second wave of heat came. We were under pressure from Louth as well and lads were out on their feet. You start to doubt yourself but when we got to the third quarter, we rejuvenated. We knew it wasn’t over. But yeah, it was ridiculous heat.

“When I saw the game fixed for 2 o’clock on a Saturday during a heatwave, I thought to myself ‘Jesus, lads, what are ya at, I know you mightn’t like us but you’re trying to kill us!’,” he laughs.

“It was tit for tat for the whole game and they just seemed to get a bit of energy, they were getting a lot of clean ball and primary possession in that third quarter. They got four points on the trot and we were a bit panicky, we started driving balls into number six for them and he started fielding them and driving them back at us and we just never got a break.”

But Cavan did not give in.

“It's something that the management and the players have got into ourselves, you just don’t give up. It’s pure mindset. If you can push yourself over the limit, it might hurt temporarily but you know what, losing that game would have hurt a lot more than any sun burn or knock you would have got during it.

No giving up

“We knew ourselves that we weren’t going to give up. We didn’t give up against Fermanagh and we played teams like Armagh, Donegal and Tyrone (in challenge matches) and we knew we had that last quarter where we could push on. We have the fitness and the conditioning this year, thank God for John Kearney doing runs with us for 12 or 13 weeks. We knew we had it in us.

“We needed a goal and that was it. We got lucky as well but at the same time, we got the goal that got us over the line.

“Credit to Sean Keating and the Gunner up front, Sean had something on his hand I think because every ball that went into him seemed to stick. The marker that was on him was tight, their keeper made a few good saves but Sean had a super game, he’s such a threat up there and he could have got three goals in the first 15 minutes.

“That’s something we have worked on, to try and hit teams as hard as we can in the first 15 minutes and weather any purple patches they might have after, which we did to a degree.”

Fermanagh are familiar foes. The rivalry has burned brightly in recent years, with the emphasis changing from brute physicality to a more skill-based game. Regardless, it is as tight as ever between the sides.

“We played them for the last five years. The first few years they were raw encounters, physical, tough, we probably weren’t the most disciplined outfits around at the time, but in the last two years both teams have stepped above that. We know that if you can be disciplined you can come out on top.

“The skill levels in both counties have improved. I have noticed with some of the young lads we have, they are way beyond me. The likes of Jack Barry, the Carneys,

Fiachra Hughes, Mark Moffett who had a sublime game, they are all brimming with skill.

“Fermanagh will think they owe us one, they will be gunning for this and they were in Croke Park last year so they’ll be sore, they’ll be a wounded dog. We have to be careful of them.”

For the coming days, Hynes’ message to his colleagues is simple – savour it, but keep your eyes on the prize.

“Colum Sheanon said in the group, ‘just get beyond the hype’. You have to enjoy the moment but we can’t get ahead of ourselves. We didn’t play hurling to just get to Croke Park – within the camp, that was almost a forbidden word. It was about playing the first few challenge games, in-house games and trying to do the best we can and improve. We did that and now we are in the final, it just happens to be that the pitch we are playing on is the hallowed ground of Croke Park.

“A few more fans and a bigger stadium but at the end of the day, you’re inside the white lines, there’s grass on the pitch and goals at either end and you have to really keep that in mind.”

The warrior’s way.