Dessie Hutchinson’s comments immediately after the Waterford SHC final had a few people scratching their heads.
“Everyone, for some reason, wrote us off this week,” he maintained immediately after Ballygunner’s 18-point demolition of Abbeyside, taking their unbeaten streak in the county to a staggering 58 games.
How anyone could have questioned the Gunners’ credentials after 10 titles in a row – they last lost a Waterford SHC game in June of 2015 – is a curious one.
Either way, Hutchinson maintained it was the case and he was only too happy to pounce on suggestions that they were there for the taking. With the blood still up immediately after tanking Abbeyside by 2-28 to 2-10, and fresh off scoring 1-4, Hutchinson claimed that critics of Ballygunner had played “a dangerous game”.
Almost nine weeks later, and with adrenaline levels back to normal, the Waterford attacker isn’t as bullish ahead of Ballygunner’s first defence of their AIB Munster club SHC crown.
They will play newly-installed Limerick champions Doon in Limerick this Sunday, though Hutchinson is standing over his claim that Ballygunner were spoken about as being vulnerable.
“Absolutely,” he said, when asked if that provided motivation. “Look, at the start of our club championship this year, we were probably underperforming in a few performances.
“There was a bit of talk then coming into the county final that we might be overturned, and I suppose we used that for motivation and we really doubled down on it and we gave our best performance of the year. Hopefully that graph keeps going that way in terms of our performances and that we’re ready again.”
Hutchinson can be excused for pouncing on anything that resembles a fresh source of motivation. The former soccer pro with Brighton has been a virtual ever-present for club and county teams since he returned home in 2018.
“I actually came back for the All-Ireland club semi-final against Ballyhale at the end of the 2018 season but I didn’t play any part in that,” said Hutchinson, who slipped into the side for 2019 and recently won his sixth Waterford SHC medal.
“When you’re coming back, I didn’t think I’d fit in as well as I did in terms of my hurling. It was great to get on that upward scale and be able to perform at the level the lads were already performing at.”
After a stint with the Waterford footballers in 2019, alongside big brother JJ, the county hurlers under Liam Cahill duly snapped him up and Hutchinson lined out in the 2020 All-Ireland final. He’s hardly been out of the team since and whilst it has been a fulfilling period, it has been tough on the body.
“You’re going all year round,” he said. “It’s a good complaint to have, when you’re doing well with your club and you’re going from one season to another. But I’d like to see something done about it in terms of a month where there might be nothing at all for teams, club or county. Look, that’s easier said than done too, trying to organise it, but it definitely does impact on the body. I’m probably at it now five years where there’s been no real preseason or anything like that.”
Hutchinson has no obvious date in the calendar in mind for that rest period, but noted Ballygunner had a nine-week break between the county final on September 1st and this weekend.
“I know we play hurling and football but there’s definitely room,” he claimed. “It’s all very scattered together at times. I think there could be a bit of room somewhere for it.”
Hutchinson reckoned ‘niggles’ that bothered him this year while playing for Waterford were partly down to the hectic schedule catching up on him.
There’ll be no respite in the short-term with Ballygunner desperate to secure their fourth successive Munster club SHC title and, one suspects, to push on and atone for last year’s agonising All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Galway’s St Thomas’ on penalties.
“There’s no doubt about it, it’s a huge motivation,” said Hutchinson of making amends for the defeat. “But we’re under no illusions about what’s to come before that. We’ve a really tough Munster club game ahead of us and we’re really looking forward to it.”
