Byline: BY PAT NOLAN
WHATEVER the outcome in tomorrow's All-Ireland semi-final against Waterford, Paul Curran will at least be relieved that he won't have to make a dash to Rosslare for the ferry.
The Tipperary full-back has spent most of this year in Wales where he was undertaking a post-graduate in primary school teaching, making the trip back home every weekend for games. "I could write a book on Stena Line," he smiles.
"You appreciate it more when you are away. I have enjoyed my hurling a lot more this year. Only when you are over in Wales do you realise how you get caught up in it here.
"You are only across the water but 30 per cent of them over there wouldn't know what hurling is. When you come back you're hungry for it. It was hard but everyone seems to be enjoying it.
"The university was in Aberystwyth. A lot of Irish over there, about 60 per cent doing the course were Irish.
"There was a guy from Galway, Barry Quinn, I was lucky to have him. He plays club hurling for Ballindereen.
Only for him I'd be well behind. He used to come training with me. He was excellent. He'd always come out."
Curran also trained with a rugby league team in an attempt to keep his hand in.
"It was just something completely different. I was meant to play a match but in the end I didn't. It was a team just from the college. It was better than training on my own. I'd just get bored.
"There was a lot of tackling, we used to have tackle bags there. A lot of footwork. They didn't do a lot of skill work.
They couldn't believe it when I'd jump up to catch it over my head."
The course has since finished and Curran is back home and looking for work, but it did eat into his Championship season as he completed his teaching practice in Pembrokeshire.
"Even after the Cork game I went straight back on the Sunday night. They don't know any different, back to teaching on a Monday morning.
"I'd always be down pucking near the sea front. They'd always be looking at you, inquisitive. They'd love it. The Welsh guys on the course would be looking up about it on the internet.
"The kids at school were fascinated by it. It shows you that you could spread it if you wanted to."
It's a tribute to Curran's diligence that he has managed to re-establish himself as one of the best full-backs in the game this year despite his intimidating schedule, and the fact that in his absence through injury last year Declan Fanning came in and earned himself an All-Star in the position.
"Myself and Declan have a great relationship, he got a break last year when I got injured, he went in, he was flying, he kind of got injured this year and I got back in."
Curran first made the position his own in 2003 after Philip Maher's disastrous leg-break in the 2003 National League final defeat to Kilkenny. Up to then he hadn't even been on the panel.
"That was my last year in college and I had opted out of the panel. I had planned on going to America, Boston, I had the J1. Then he got injured, I was asked to come in to training but sure they knew once I came in there was no way I was going to America."
They got to an All-Ireland semi-final that year and before now hadn't reached one since. They had been beaten by Kilkenny in a classic semi-final in 2002, Nicky English's last game in charge, but a year later they suffered a 12-point walloping from the Cats.
"I suppose we just weren't battlehardened. Even our training games we weren't geared up to it compared to this year where we have 33 lads fighting.
"After that we had two Munster final defeats to Cork, it doesn't be long going. Even if we had won either I don't know if we had the belief to beat Kilkenny.
"I think the turning point was the 2002 All-Ireland semi-final when Kilkenny beat Tipp. Nicky English left, Tipp went down. It would have been interesting to see what would have happened if he had stayed on."
After years of underachievement though the set-up under Liam Sheedy appears to be just as the players want it, with not a squeak of discontent.
"The whole system that was put in place has really helped. There comes a time when you say, 'hold on here, we'd want to be winning something'."
Curran has helped buck that trend as much as anyone this year.
MATCH VERDICT
ONCE again Waterford return to the semi-final stage of the season which will define their year.
Win tomorrow and their action against Justin McCarthy is justified. Lose and they have, at best, stood still as a team.
Consistently they have failed to perform in All-Ireland semi-finals.
The only one when they came close to doing themselves justice was in 2004 but a flying finish wasn't enough to catch Kilkenny after handing them a three-goal start.
They need to fire on all cylinders tomorrow against a Tipperary team which is a very different proposition to the side they have beaten regularly since 2002.
Tipp have a much better shape to their team with Brendan Cummins, Shane McGrath and Eoin Kelly all heading for All-Stars having been left out last year.
They are finally playingto their potential and while an All-Ireland might be beyond them this year, reaching the final isn't.
There are too many question marks over the Waterford line-up and, though they will most likely produce their best performance of the year, it probably won't be good enough to beat Tipperary this time.
VERDICT: Tipperary
CAPTION(S):
LESSON Curran has spent the year studying in Aberystwyth in Wales; INVINCIBLE New manager Liam Sheedy has overseen an unbeaten year so far with Tipperary
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