Mannion's long road leads to date with destiny at Croke Park

Hurling

Just married in February and with a baby on the way and a house under construction, Tomás Mannion is a busy man. But when he leaves his home in Oranmore and turns the car for Cavan three times a week – a two-hour spin sometimes, depending on traffic – he has time to think. What does he think about? Hurling.

“It’s a fair commitment but, once you get into it, especially championship, you're just consumed by it,” Mannion told the Anglo-Celt after training on Sunday morning last.

“Most managers or coaches are probably the same and even outside of that, you're watching videos of opposition and that kind of stuff. But, yeah, I'm really enjoying it.”

Under his and Ollie Bellew’s watch, Cavan hurlers’ standing in the game has increased dramatically, as has the workload. He even jokes – and it’s only a joke - that his wife, Heather, didn’t want to see the season extended such is the time his role with the Cavan team takes up.

But five years on from his first involvement with the county, this campaign has actually been the most enjoyable of all.

“It actually went a bit quicker this year, maybe the couple of breaks we took meant it didn't seem as much of a slog.

“And I think the fact that we're in Division 3 as well, I think when you're playing good opposition, and you're going down the road to play a good match, that makes a big difference.

“Whereas sometimes, maybe you're training with low numbers or you're playing an inferior opposition, you're not going to learn a lot. So, yeah, I’ve enjoyed this year now, probably the most of them all.”

Mannion’s link with Cavan came about by chance.

“I did a Masters in Jordanstown, and Ollie (Bellew) was hurling coach, and I had no real interest in playing. I was coming to the end myself, but we kind of got in touch and I played Fitzgibbon with him that year.

“And then we just kind of kept in touch. Every so often, I’d text him and say, ‘are you taking a team?’ or whatever. And then he said he was with Cavan. And it was kind of like, ‘Well, jeez, what grade are they in?’

“And then I said, ‘Sure, I'll give it a go. It was around 2020, then Covid hit. And it was great to get out of the house,” he laughed.

“And it kind of built from there but then I just got such a bond with the boys and I was really, really welcomed here.”

It’s been a long road to this point. Bellew and Mannion had to build a team and change a culture, neither task easy nor ever truly complete.

“I'd say the standards in Cavan have gone way up but I think the competition standard has actually gone up quite a bit as well. Everyone can strike the ball, you know, but it's how quick can you do it? Can you do it under pressure? Can you strike short? Have you the bravery to strike at different levels, at different intensities, that kind of thing.

“And there's probably not a culture in football of being out the back striking a ball or kicking a ball off a wall, whereas in hurling, it's massive, striking off a shed, striking off a gable wall...

“And maybe that wasn't here as much. So I think we kind of brought that in, it's a really technical sport, and to get better at it, you’ve just got to put in the time, and then you’ve got to train at different intensities, which maybe wasn't happening prior to this. That's kind of what I'd see.

“And I think the lads are really buying into that, you can see that, instead of just get the ball away from danger, it's like, no, ‘we have the ball, we're in possession now, we're going to try and use it’. That's kind of the main thing really.”

Last week, Cavan played top Dublin club side Cuala in a challenge match. Mannion agreed that, half a dozen years ago, Cavan would have had no business taking on that level of opposition.

“No and they wouldn’t want to play us either,” he said, smiling.

“We played them and, yeah, it was a great challenge. We were delighted with it. But like that, I suppose, if you were not at that pace, it's just a non-contest, you know what I mean? If you're actually giving the ball away and just hitting the ball down the field, sure they're just going to pick you off.

“Whereas, if you're confident to run the ball, to work it out, to give the ball to the best advantage, then you're in the game, you know, that's kind of our main thing.

“And on top of that, then when we don't have it, that work rate probably needed to be upped as well, a good bit, which comes with conditioning, which comes with Aodhgán (Fox), which comes with Keith Greene before, and all those boys who are working hard to just to try and build that up. And it takes time.

“Look, we're here probably a couple years longer than we thought to be honest but yeah, we’re getting there.”

Mannion is personable and relaxed but one thing that bugs him is the lack of promotion and development of hurling in vast swathes of the country.

He freely admits that people in stronger hurling counties, including his own, can be dismissive of Ulster and the lower tiers but he feels much more should be done.

“The more I've been here, the more I think it's just ridiculous that there isn't more pumped into nearly half of the country for a sport that's such a good spectacle.

“Why isn't there more being done in these counties? I just don't understand it. You see loads of fanfare with other things and money pumped into other things. And I just don't get it.

“It's something that's very easy to kind of get up and running. And now I know there's a new Hurling director but, jeez, what was happening for the last 20 years?”

Whatever about 20, in the last five years, the landscape has changed for Cavan. They have been close in recent years but the margins are fine and a poor half, or even quarter, has proven costly each season.

“It was frustrating. In 2023 we came back in and in hindsight, it was probably our best chance to get to the final and maybe to win it, because at the start of the year, we wouldn't have thought we were near it.

“But we got promoted, and we got ourselves to a position where we had Leitrim out here and yeah, we didn't show up. We made mistakes.

“We made mistakes on the line, mistakes made on the pitch, and that was one we left behind. Then last year Fermanagh up in Enniskillen, we drew with them when we had a big lead.

“But I think all the time we were still building, in ’23 and ’24 there were neck-and-neck games, whereas in the first four rounds this year, we kind of put a bit of a gap between the rest of the teams and ourselves so I think there has been improvement.

“But yeah, sure it was a killer that we didn't get back to the final after being so close in other years but we waited long enough to get there, hopefully now we’re going to give it a rattle on Saturday.”

Saturday means New York, who will bring a “stacked” squad.

“When you look at their team sheet, it looks like they're stacked - even Galway lads, there's four or five of them there and they've played at a really high level, Liam McCarthy, whereas we're kind of down in the fifth rung, I suppose. But look, isn’t it great that our lads can play in that competition and play against the likes of those boys?

“I'm sure New York are going to go up the grades and get up towards Christy Ring or maybe further up. Good luck to them.

“Like, it's probably a big commitment for them, but look, it's good to have an extra game, good to have extra competition. We'll give it a go and we'll see how we get on.”