Now and again, "a few old heads" around the Kilmacud Crokes clubhouse offer words of advice to Brian Sheehy. It sounds as though he'd prefer if they didn't. Sheehy, currently the only senior dual player with the south Dublin club, isn't for turning towards one code.
Last Sunday, he was an unused substitute, wearing number 25, as Crokes defeated Na Fianna to retain their Dublin senior football title. This weekend, he'll be in the fullback line as Crokes meet Na Fianna in the hurling final. It's the first time since 1971, when St Vincents played Craobh Chiaráin, that the same clubs have met in both the Dublin senior football and hurling deciders.
Proud sponsors of the Dublin GAA Club Championships, Go-Ahead Ireland today hosted a media event with Brian Sheehy of Kilmacud Crokes and Donal Burke of Na Fianna ahead of the Go-Ahead Dublin Senior Hurling Championship final taking place in Parnell Park on the 23rd of September. Mandatory Credit ©INPHO/Morgan Treacy
"I’m very passionate about being a dual player," says Sheehy, speaking at a media day for Sunday's Go-Ahead Ireland Dublin Senior Hurling Championship final.
"I wouldn't be doing it if I didn't enjoy both. It's tough, especially playing for a bigger club because the standard is so high on both sides.
'I have equal love for football and hurling'
"I think that it’s a lovely thing to be able to do in the GAA and have groups of friends in either team. I am conscious that I am the only one at Kilmacud Crokes and I want kids looking up and thinking ‘There’s someone there. Even if I’m not playing both [right now], he’s there so I can do it when I’m older’. I think that’s very important that I can inspire the next generation that it can be done.
"Probably a bit of stubbornness in me as well. Why should I have to quit one when I enjoy playing both? I know that in practical terms it’s very tough but I have equal love for football and hurling.
"I think they are special games, they’re made to be played by a dual player."
8 October 2022; Brian Sheehy of Kilmacud Crokes saves a shot on goal from a free from Paul Ryan of Ballyboden St Enda's during the Go Ahead Dublin County Senior Club Hurling Championship Semi-Final match between Kilmacud Crokes and Ballyboden St Enda's at Parnell Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Which he prefers at any given time depends on his performance in the last game.
"If I have a shite game or I play well in the hurling I’m happy with that, and if I do well in the football I’m happy with the football," he says.
"I don’t have any real plan of stopping either, even though I get a few old heads in the club giving me their own opinions about it... I want to keep it going as long as I can.
"I train as much as any other lad would because I do 50 per cent with the hurling and 50 per cent with the football. So it’s the same as every club player, I’m no different that way.
"Usually I do one football, and one hurling [session] each week, and if there’s a football weekend I do football that week and then vice versa. But there are people who would say to me, 'Why don’t you train more with the hurlers because you start more with them?' but you have to give them that equal commitment to both.
"If you’re going to do it you’re going to have to show respect and give an equal commitment to both no matter what, if you’re starting or even if you’re not in the 26. That's very important.
"I’m in a very demanding college course at the moment, science at UCD, which is pretty much full-time. So you’re going to college and training three times a week. Then you’re trying to juggle other things like relationships, family, socialising, which is obviously a big part of college.
"I’m extremely lucky to have the two co-managers of the hurlers and Baggio (Robbie Brennan) with the footballers. They’re in constant communication the whole time and are watching my load. I just keep in contact with them, and lucky for me they are both sound out about it.
"[Loughmore-Castleiney's] achievement was fantastic last year. Obviously their double got much more attention than Crokes’ did because of all their dual stars. They obviously don’t have the same numbers. It was a special achievement and great to see.
"You look at Slaughtneil and stuff, they’re really the standard-bearers for how a dual club can be run. So you have to look to them and take inspiration from them."
31 October 2021; Kilmacud Crokes goalkeeper Eddie Gibbons and team-mates Cian Mac Gabhann, Bill O’Carroll, Brian Sheehy, and Davy Crowe await a late free for Cuala during the Go Ahead Dublin County Senior Club Hurling Championship Semi-Final match between Cuala and Kilmacud Crokes at Parnell Park in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
Just as they will this weekend, Crokes played Na Fianna in 2021 final. They had trailed by nine points with nine minutes to play in last year's decider against a Na Fianna team playing in the club's first senior final, but came back to force extra-time, and eventually win 4-26 to 2-25.
"It was absolutely mad last year," says Sheehy.
"To be honest, I thought it was gone. With ten minutes to go, Donal Burke got that second goal and I wanted the ground to swallow me up and wanted to get out of Parnell Park as fast as I could.
"But then that’s just sport. Things happened and momentum changed. That’s a huge thing and we got a run at them. [Ronan] Hayes got those two goals at the end, and we never looked back. It is one of the most amazing games that I have been a part of. It made it that extra bit special to win it that way."
Sheehy says the manner of Crokes' victory in the Dublin hurling final made the club's dramatic defeat to Kilcoo in the All-Ireland football final "easier for me to take in a weird way".
"That was sport, comebacks happen and that’s why we love it," he says.
"Dramatic things happened and at the end of the day nobody has died. The hurt is still there, but I have been on both sides of it.
"We were disappointed to lose to Clough-Ballacolla [in last year's Leinster Hurling Championship], but I think a lot was made out of that game, the same way the same was made out of the Mullinalaghta game.
"Clough were a very good team and they deserved to win. It wasn’t that we didn’t show up or anything. We accepted the defeat and said that we will focus on Dublin for now.
"We’re back in the final so hopefully we can push on. That’s our sole concentration now, winning it back-to-back, which is not an easy thing to do."
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