Responsibility on Galway players to perform Ð Helebert

Date Published: {J}

STEPHEN GLENNON

FORMER All-Star and U-21 hurling selector Tom Helebert believes every Galway player who is handed a county jersey for the Tribesmen’s All-Ireland semi-final clash against Munster champions Limerick at Semple Stadium this weekend has “a responsibility to perform.”

Helebert, who earlier this year was to the fore in guiding Clarinbridge to an All-Ireland club title, is not one to stand on ceremony and the no-nonsense approach that served him so well as a player, he has now carried through into management.

“Every player who has the good fortune of pulling a jersey on for Galway, at any grade, must understand that they are considered the best player in the position at that point in time and there is a responsibility on them to perform,” states the Ballinderreen native.

“Now, you cannot let that responsibility choke you, you have to go and express yourself and bring the talent out on the pitch. Our job, as management, is to make sure the players have sufficient confidence in themselves and believe in what we are trying to achieve. You need to bring that positivity.

“Of course, it is very easy to focus on what goes wrong but it is important – even more important – to focus on the positives. What goes wrong cannot define you. After all, what makes you successful is what you do well and what you do right. That is the message we have been giving the lads. Don’t get hung up on making a mistake. Get hung up on trying to do the right thing as often as possible.”

That said, with no competitive game to date – unlike Limerick, who have come through a testing Munster championship – it leaves very little margin for error for the management when selecting their best possible starting XV.

“That is a very good point,” concedes Helebert, “but preparation is defined by the way the draw is made. All you can do in both your training environment and in the challenge and trial games you play is try to replicate everything that is ahead of you in the championship campaign.

“So, you pick your challenges carefully and we have been quite selective in the way we have gone about that. You try to play teams who you know will give you the right test and at different stages. Naturally, you are always wondering what will happen on the day, but modern management is planning for everything. You have to plan for every eventuality and hopefully we have done that.

“We have seen Limerick. We know what level they play at. We know the intensity they play at. They will have the benefit of a couple of games in which they have tested themselves. Like I said earlier, we have picked a panel and from that we are picking what we think are the best equipped 15 guys right now to represent the panel. They have the responsibility now to go and perform. That’s how we would have addressed them. It is now about performing, doing what we know they are able to do.”

In many respects, that will mean, perhaps, not fielding the best 15 hurlers but lining out a team that can fulfil the essential requirements and criteria for this game. “Correct,” states the former Galway defender and 1996 All-Star. “The way the modern game is evolving you are trying to load yourself with the best possible methodically to win the game.

For more, read this week’s Galway City Tribune.