John Mulhall knows a winner when he sees one.
He grew up surrounded by them. He came into what was probably the greatest ever Kilkenny side as a teenager and he didn’t shrink in their presence.
He played alongside some of the legends of the game. Household names. When he came to senior county hurling, the Cats had already accrued three successive All-Irelands. He was part of the panel that helped them to a fourth. He was there when Tipp denied them a fifth.
He was there too when they reclaimed Liam McCarthy in 2011.
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Mulhall has worked alongside the best, he’s worked under Brian Cody and he’s competed for All-Irelands as if there was no other way of existence.
Now, after five years of separation from the inter-county scene, he’s back. But not with Kilkenny. He’s with Kildare now – not that it has gotten any easier.
“It’s crazy the amount it has come on even from five years ago with Kilkenny, which you assume we’d have been training hard,” the 28-year-old spoke on SportsJOE’s GAA Hour hurling podcast.
“The level Kildare are at now, it’s ahead of what I was doing five years ago.
“It’s moved on spectacularly between WhatsApps and video analysis and just in terms of pure science of the sport, it’s moved on in the five years since I’ve been away.”
Of course, when you’ve come from that kind of pedigree and tradition, a decision to go to a Division 2A side in the prime of your playing days naturally raises a few eyebrows.
“I would’ve spoken with a couple of people at home when Joe [Quaid] rang me and they said things like, ‘Why would you do that? You’ve played in front of 82,000 people on All-Ireland final day’ – stuff like that,” Mulhall explained.
“To get an opportunity like this… I don’t want to be looking back in six, 10, 20 years time and think that I got the chance and didn’t take it.
“I’m actually loving hurling with the boys and hopefully we can go on and promote hurling and win the Christy Ring.
“Kildare would compete in the Kilkenny championship very strongly. There’s a difference between county and club but it’s about raising the standard of all these counties.
“Some of the counties are doing huge work. In Naas, they have so many players, it’s absolutely crazy. They’re coming down and playing in the Kilkenny leagues and under-16s and minor and they’re wiping the floor with some teams in the A divisions.
“Kildare, in five years, I can see competing in the Leinster championship and if you can get Westmeath and other teams of a similar ilk – Carlow – up to that standard, then there’s no reason why you couldn’t have 10 teams competing for a Leinster championship.”
And it’s not like he has much regrets about being cut from his native county’s panel at 23. Look at the panel he was cut from, for God’s sake.
“When I was 19, it was 2008 and I was coming into a three-in-a-row All-Ireland winning panel. Lads had six or seven All-Ireland medals at that stage and I was in there training with the like of Tommy [Walsh], JJ [Delaney], Henry [Shefflin], Martin Comerford, Eoin Larkin – these men will never be seen again as long as the sport of hurling is played.
“I was on the greatest panel ever assembled so I can always look back on that.
“When I was dropped in 2012, I could’ve made a decision to either go really hard getting back onto the panel or be happy with your lot and concentrate living your life.”
Listen to the full, brilliant interview below (from 43:37).
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