Aaron Cunningham’s plan is to rise early tomorrow, head to an Irish bar nearby, sit back and observe seventy odd minutes of heated action as Clare and Cork square off in Thurles for the right to take a trophy home with them.
It’s a world away from his role when the teams crossed paths twelve months ago. He started that afternoon on the Clare bench, was shunted into the match with ten minutes left, picked off a point and made a nuisance of himself to the Cork defence.
He couldn’t help engineer a comeback and watching from afar as Clare try to right the wrongs from that 2017 showdown, will certainly be jarring.
At least he’s not isolated in that regard. He’s hurling for the Tipperary club at the moment on the west coast of America, living with Ballyea’s Gearoid O’Connell, Kilmaley’s Eoin Enright and Clarecastle’s Bobby Duggan – a trio who he won All-Ireland U21 honours with in 2014 and who have all had their own spells with the Clare senior side.
“We’ve a game here ourselves, we’re playing at two o’clock and the Clare game is on at six. There’s a Clare bar down the road that shows the games. They’d all be mad to watch it.
“We’ll get up about half 5 or so, make our way down, have the breakfast below there and then we’ll head on and play our game.
“It’s very strange. You’ve that big game build up, a bit of bite to it. It’s even hard to try and keep in touch, games have been on in the middle of the night, so I’m kind of relying on GAA GO and Twitter to keep up with it.
“A very different experience to being in the thick of it last year.”
Life has taken him in a different direction. Thoughts of travel had swirled around his mind for a while. Once Clare’s 2017 journey ended at the hands of Tipperary last July and after Wolfe Tones club duties had been completed in the autumn, Cunningham made the decision and jumped on a plane.
“I think it was always on my mind to travel. Playing minor and U21, straight into senior then, you don’t really get the chance.
“I did a Masters in Education with Hibernia in Dublin, after doing the undergrad in Galway. I kind of decided once I was finished that, I’d probably use that time to head away before looking for a job.
”It kind of worked with the end of the GAA season and I just took off then really. I finished out the club season back home, we were down the bottom end of the senior championship, just avoided relegation and that made it that bit harder to go away.
“On top of that, Aron Shanagher, who would have been our other very strong player, got injured. It’s not ideal but it is what it is. I went around Europe for a while, inter-railing and that, and then I headed for Melbourne.
“I was in Melbourne for seven or eight months, then I got the opportunity to play hurling in San Fran for a few months so kind of packed up in Melbourne and I’m in San Fran now.”
His last outing with Clare saw him dazzle on the day the doors of the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh were thrown wide open. Cunningham ransacked the Tipperary defence for two goals, another glimpse of the scoring threat he offered.
His underage career illustrated his potential as he arrived at a time when Clare were thriving in those youthful grades. He got a taste of All-Ireland final day when the Clare minor side lost to Kilkenny in 2010 and shot 0-4 the following year in an extra-time All-Ireland semi-final thriller against Galway.
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U21 days were a breeze with three seasons yielding three Munster medals and three All-Ireland medals. He featured in all three Semple Stadium final wins, signing off with 1-2 from play against Wexford in the 2014 triumph. There was role as a panellist in the memorable senior success of 2013.
But injuries stalled his progress. He collided with Noel Connors in a game against Waterford in 2012 and that was the start of major trouble with his shoulder for a year. Another campaign was written off due to problems with his hamstrings.
When he was fit and picked up form, Clare had a scoring weapon on their hands – the Munster opener in May 2015 when he hit 2-1 against Limerick after being brought on as a sub, the league semi-final in April 2016 when he rifled home 2-3 as Clare took down Kilkenny.
Still the nature of his personal display in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final was not persuasive enough to make him park his travel plans.
“There’s no perfect time to go and you’ll always leave something behind. It’s just making the first step. I felt that going the time of the year I did was best because the hurling season was over and there wasn’t much talk in Clare about hurling after losing out again and not getting back to Croke Park.
“Whereas if I’d left it until January or February and things start going again and you’re kind of in and around the camp, that’ll make it that bit harder. So I just decided to leave when I did.
“In the back of my head, there was a small bit of a notion that I might come back, say February or March, because I was aware that Cian Dillon was away doing a bit of travelling and that was his plans. David McInerney had done it the previous year.
“But I just started getting on really well in Australia, really enjoying it and I just said I was going to stick it out for another while.”
He’d headed to far-flung destinations but his hurling capabilities help keep that connection to home. Settling in Melbourne, it was a natural fit to line out for Dan Breens, a club established a few years back by Shannon natives Dermot O’Rourke and Brian O’Connell.
“I was almost obliged then to join them,” laughs Cunningham.
“I actually went with the intention not to play at all, take a complete break from it. Then you move in a house with lads and they’re all hurling. Sure if you weren’t doing it, you’d be the odd one out.
“I went back then after Christmas and really started to enjoy it. It was great, train twice a week and game on a Sunday. Lot different to what I was used to.
“After the game, everyone would go for a few drinks. At training, you worked hard when you did but it was a bit of craic, laughing and joking.
“If you couldn’t make training because you were working or you’d something else on, that was fine. It was just obviously a different level to playing county.”
Clare hurler Aaron Cunningham. Morgan Treacy / INPHO
Morgan Treacy / INPHO / INPHO
He wasn’t looking then for an opportunity to move to San Francisco but seized when it came his way.
“I just knew a fella out here, Seamus Collins. He heard that I was away from home doing a bit of travelling and he just put the option out there to come here for a few months during the summer if I wanted to play.
“So as I was on the road, I said I might as well. The hurling out here now is a serious standard, I was surprised at it to be honest. We’d a game last Sunday just gone, the first game out here and like it’s very high standard for hurling overseas.”
He’s away but still tracking the hurling progress at home. Clare’s fortunes are of obvious interest but their most recent game against Limerick lobbed another factor into the mix.
Cunningham’s father Alan is a decorated hurling coach. He’s done stints with Clare and Offaly, been immersed in All-Ireland club runs with Wolfe Tones and Na Piarsaigh.
These days he’s aiding John Kiely’s Limerick project, the Cunningham household divided for last summer’s Munster semi-final when father was on the sideline opposing son on the pitch.
There was plenty on the line a fortnight ago when the counties clashed in Ennis.
“Sure when it came down to Clare and Limerick, I was only hoping Clare would give them a hammering, text the auld lad and let him know about it!
“I actually think the new Munster championship is great. I know I haven’t been involved in it now and it’s probably difficult on players and teams and that.
“But just looking at it from a spectator, I think it’s brilliant. I’m living and working with lads from all over Ireland now. Say every Sunday evening, we’d watch the games on the telly and then coming home from work on a Monday, everyone would have the dinner, we’d sit down and watch The Sunday Game.
“Rather than it being once every five or six weeks where you’re watching a game, it was every weekend. I thought it was really enjoyable.
“First day out to Cork, Clare were not looking too hectic and were beaten reasonably well. It didn’t look great to be honest but then something just turned around and they’ve been brilliant ever since.
“I was very impressed with the game against Limerick. Once they went ahead, something you hadn’t seen with Clare in a while, they didn’t sit back on two or three points. They just kept going.”
The significance of tomorrow for Clare hurling is not lost on him. Two decades waiting for Munster glory represents a considerable barren spell.
“It builds. Last year, you’ve one game before, you played Limerick and Limerick probably weren’t at their best and there wasn’t much hype around it. But everyone has seen what Clare are about this year, it builds around the county and kind of puts faith back into the team once everyone can see what they’re capable of.
“It’s actually strange when you think only four or five teams can’t win it every year, that Clare haven’t won one in so long. So it’d be great now to get over the line in fairness. There’s no way that Clare, because they have been contesting, should ever go that length of time without winning a Munster championship.”
The growing excitement amongst Banner fans is easy to detect even from thousands of miles away.
It’ll be a strange experience watching on for Cunningham but the will for Clare to win is in no way diminished.
“There’s people texting me out here looking for tickets. I don’t know how they think I’d manage to get them for them!
“It’ll definitely be different. There’ll be part of you that’ll be almost sick that you’re not there and you’re missing out. But as I said then, I made a decision to go and I just have to go with it.”
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From Munster final day to life in Melbourne and watching on from San Francisco
MUNSTER FINAL SUNDAY in San Francisco.
Aaron Cunningham’s plan is to rise early tomorrow, head to an Irish bar nearby, sit back and observe seventy odd minutes of heated action as Clare and Cork square off in Thurles for the right to take a trophy home with them.
It’s a world away from his role when the teams crossed paths twelve months ago. He started that afternoon on the Clare bench, was shunted into the match with ten minutes left, picked off a point and made a nuisance of himself to the Cork defence.
He couldn’t help engineer a comeback and watching from afar as Clare try to right the wrongs from that 2017 showdown, will certainly be jarring.
At least he’s not isolated in that regard. He’s hurling for the Tipperary club at the moment on the west coast of America, living with Ballyea’s Gearoid O’Connell, Kilmaley’s Eoin Enright and Clarecastle’s Bobby Duggan – a trio who he won All-Ireland U21 honours with in 2014 and who have all had their own spells with the Clare senior side.
“We’ve a game here ourselves, we’re playing at two o’clock and the Clare game is on at six. There’s a Clare bar down the road that shows the games. They’d all be mad to watch it.
“We’ll get up about half 5 or so, make our way down, have the breakfast below there and then we’ll head on and play our game.
“It’s very strange. You’ve that big game build up, a bit of bite to it. It’s even hard to try and keep in touch, games have been on in the middle of the night, so I’m kind of relying on GAA GO and Twitter to keep up with it.
“A very different experience to being in the thick of it last year.”
Life has taken him in a different direction. Thoughts of travel had swirled around his mind for a while. Once Clare’s 2017 journey ended at the hands of Tipperary last July and after Wolfe Tones club duties had been completed in the autumn, Cunningham made the decision and jumped on a plane.
“I think it was always on my mind to travel. Playing minor and U21, straight into senior then, you don’t really get the chance.
“I did a Masters in Education with Hibernia in Dublin, after doing the undergrad in Galway. I kind of decided once I was finished that, I’d probably use that time to head away before looking for a job.
”It kind of worked with the end of the GAA season and I just took off then really. I finished out the club season back home, we were down the bottom end of the senior championship, just avoided relegation and that made it that bit harder to go away.
“On top of that, Aron Shanagher, who would have been our other very strong player, got injured. It’s not ideal but it is what it is. I went around Europe for a while, inter-railing and that, and then I headed for Melbourne.
“I was in Melbourne for seven or eight months, then I got the opportunity to play hurling in San Fran for a few months so kind of packed up in Melbourne and I’m in San Fran now.”
His last outing with Clare saw him dazzle on the day the doors of the new Páirc Uí Chaoimh were thrown wide open. Cunningham ransacked the Tipperary defence for two goals, another glimpse of the scoring threat he offered.
His underage career illustrated his potential as he arrived at a time when Clare were thriving in those youthful grades. He got a taste of All-Ireland final day when the Clare minor side lost to Kilkenny in 2010 and shot 0-4 the following year in an extra-time All-Ireland semi-final thriller against Galway.
U21 days were a breeze with three seasons yielding three Munster medals and three All-Ireland medals. He featured in all three Semple Stadium final wins, signing off with 1-2 from play against Wexford in the 2014 triumph. There was role as a panellist in the memorable senior success of 2013.
But injuries stalled his progress. He collided with Noel Connors in a game against Waterford in 2012 and that was the start of major trouble with his shoulder for a year. Another campaign was written off due to problems with his hamstrings.
When he was fit and picked up form, Clare had a scoring weapon on their hands – the Munster opener in May 2015 when he hit 2-1 against Limerick after being brought on as a sub, the league semi-final in April 2016 when he rifled home 2-3 as Clare took down Kilkenny.
Still the nature of his personal display in last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final was not persuasive enough to make him park his travel plans.
“There’s no perfect time to go and you’ll always leave something behind. It’s just making the first step. I felt that going the time of the year I did was best because the hurling season was over and there wasn’t much talk in Clare about hurling after losing out again and not getting back to Croke Park.
“Whereas if I’d left it until January or February and things start going again and you’re kind of in and around the camp, that’ll make it that bit harder. So I just decided to leave when I did.
“In the back of my head, there was a small bit of a notion that I might come back, say February or March, because I was aware that Cian Dillon was away doing a bit of travelling and that was his plans. David McInerney had done it the previous year.
“But I just started getting on really well in Australia, really enjoying it and I just said I was going to stick it out for another while.”
He’d headed to far-flung destinations but his hurling capabilities help keep that connection to home. Settling in Melbourne, it was a natural fit to line out for Dan Breens, a club established a few years back by Shannon natives Dermot O’Rourke and Brian O’Connell.
“I was almost obliged then to join them,” laughs Cunningham.
“I actually went with the intention not to play at all, take a complete break from it. Then you move in a house with lads and they’re all hurling. Sure if you weren’t doing it, you’d be the odd one out.
“I went back then after Christmas and really started to enjoy it. It was great, train twice a week and game on a Sunday. Lot different to what I was used to.
“After the game, everyone would go for a few drinks. At training, you worked hard when you did but it was a bit of craic, laughing and joking.
“If you couldn’t make training because you were working or you’d something else on, that was fine. It was just obviously a different level to playing county.”
He wasn’t looking then for an opportunity to move to San Francisco but seized when it came his way.
“I just knew a fella out here, Seamus Collins. He heard that I was away from home doing a bit of travelling and he just put the option out there to come here for a few months during the summer if I wanted to play.
“So as I was on the road, I said I might as well. The hurling out here now is a serious standard, I was surprised at it to be honest. We’d a game last Sunday just gone, the first game out here and like it’s very high standard for hurling overseas.”
He’s away but still tracking the hurling progress at home. Clare’s fortunes are of obvious interest but their most recent game against Limerick lobbed another factor into the mix.
Cunningham’s father Alan is a decorated hurling coach. He’s done stints with Clare and Offaly, been immersed in All-Ireland club runs with Wolfe Tones and Na Piarsaigh.
These days he’s aiding John Kiely’s Limerick project, the Cunningham household divided for last summer’s Munster semi-final when father was on the sideline opposing son on the pitch.
There was plenty on the line a fortnight ago when the counties clashed in Ennis.
“Sure when it came down to Clare and Limerick, I was only hoping Clare would give them a hammering, text the auld lad and let him know about it!
“I actually think the new Munster championship is great. I know I haven’t been involved in it now and it’s probably difficult on players and teams and that.
“But just looking at it from a spectator, I think it’s brilliant. I’m living and working with lads from all over Ireland now. Say every Sunday evening, we’d watch the games on the telly and then coming home from work on a Monday, everyone would have the dinner, we’d sit down and watch The Sunday Game.
“Rather than it being once every five or six weeks where you’re watching a game, it was every weekend. I thought it was really enjoyable.
“First day out to Cork, Clare were not looking too hectic and were beaten reasonably well. It didn’t look great to be honest but then something just turned around and they’ve been brilliant ever since.
“I was very impressed with the game against Limerick. Once they went ahead, something you hadn’t seen with Clare in a while, they didn’t sit back on two or three points. They just kept going.”
The significance of tomorrow for Clare hurling is not lost on him. Two decades waiting for Munster glory represents a considerable barren spell.
“It builds. Last year, you’ve one game before, you played Limerick and Limerick probably weren’t at their best and there wasn’t much hype around it. But everyone has seen what Clare are about this year, it builds around the county and kind of puts faith back into the team once everyone can see what they’re capable of.
“It’s actually strange when you think only four or five teams can’t win it every year, that Clare haven’t won one in so long. So it’d be great now to get over the line in fairness. There’s no way that Clare, because they have been contesting, should ever go that length of time without winning a Munster championship.”
The growing excitement amongst Banner fans is easy to detect even from thousands of miles away.
It’ll be a strange experience watching on for Cunningham but the will for Clare to win is in no way diminished.
“There’s people texting me out here looking for tickets. I don’t know how they think I’d manage to get them for them!
“It’ll definitely be different. There’ll be part of you that’ll be almost sick that you’re not there and you’re missing out. But as I said then, I made a decision to go and I just have to go with it.”
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‘It’s all been a bit of a blur really’ – A whirlwind start of success to Cork senior hurling career
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Aaron Cunningham Banner Jet Setter Editor's picks GAA Munster Final Clare Cork