Broadford captain Pádraig Hickey freely admits that he’s living and hurling a dream as his side close in on a first ever Munster club title, writes Joe Ó Muircheartaigh.

It’s been a whirlwind these past four weeks for Broadford, but if you’re searching for other superlatives to explain away Pádraig Hickey’s role in the biggest thing to hit the game there since....well ever, if you think about it.
True, getting to a county senior final back ’45 was a big gig, but given that they lost that day to Clarecastle always meant that the achievement of 63 years ago was always going to be superseded by an intermediate success that has carried over into a Munster final appearance.
This march on Munster hasn’t been a one man show by any means, but the cold statistics of Hickey’s contribution mark him down as the biggest single factor in Broadford’s successes to date.
He bagged 0-4 from play in the county final; there was 1-3 in the win over Templederry Keynons; 2-3 against Bruff; man-of-the-match gongs in all three games; he’s captain and an eight-year veteran of the side; he’s still only 24.
“It’s very easy be captain,” he says, “especially when you’ve got such experience around you, from Kieran ‘Bomber’ Ryan in goal out to Kieran Corcoran, Aonghus O’Brien and others. There’s no need for me to encourage those lads. You look around and they’re encouraging people. It’s an easy job and I just want to go out there and hurl.
“Being captain is an unbelievable honour and taking my club to a Munster final is a dream. To run out on the field as captain will be great. There’s a great buzz about the place. Nobody in the parish has experienced anything like this before. To get to a Munster final is something we’ve never even dreamed of.
“Even before the game against Templederry the first day out in the Munster Club, there was great excitement and people would have been happy even if we lost. But getting to a Munster final has everyone ecstatic.”
Being a Munster final captain was the furthest thing from Hickey’s mind in the early part of the county championship, especially after two defeats to Parteen in the round-robin stages.
“It goes back to the two Parteen games,” says Hickey. “In the first game we were up eight points with eight minutes to go. In the second game against them we were up seven points with ten minutes to go. We lost both of them. We looked hard at those games because it was just not acceptable to be losing games from that position.
“Everyone involved had a good look at themselves. Management and players had a look at themselves individually and looked at how we could improve. We weren’t fit enough back then. We weren’t playing the way we set out to play or wanted to play. We set about getting that right. Once we got it right things started coming together for us. The results are there to prove that.
“We knew we could do it. Clooney-Quin beat us in the 2006 semi-final and went on to win the county and then Munster. The same happened in 2007. Clonlara beat us in the semi-final after we’d already beaten them earlier in the year and they went on to win Munster as well.
“We knew that if we did get it right and set our minds to it that we would be there or thereabouts. All we wanted to do was win the county final, there was no talk of Munster or anything like that. Once we achieved that goal the monkey was off our back and we hurled with a bit of freedom after that.”
Freedom that brings with it a self-belief that they can emulate the achievements of both Clooney-Quin and Clonlara. Hickey points to be blend of young and older players, a mixture that seems to be becoming more potent with each outing.
“New lads have come on the block for us. Cathal Chaplin is one who played last year. This year you have the likes of Niall Moloney, Mark Moloney and Kieran O’Connell – they’re all minors. They’ve been fantastic additions to the team. Myself Kieran Corcoran, my brother David, the O’Briens are there for a good number of years.
“There’ll always be one or two doubters, but once we put the effort in and got results everyone really came on board. We beat practically all the favourites in the intermediate. Whitegate, Killanena and the ‘Bridge who were nearly unbeaten for the whole year. Once people saw the effort we were putting in the doubters admitted they were wrong and were completely behind us.”
This spirit of togetherness will be on show on Sunday as Hickey hopes to lead Broadford to their greatest hurling day. And, in the days leading up to the final, he’s daring to dream of how great it would be.
“Winning would be unbelievable and that’s what we’re training to do. We’re not just training to show up on the day and turn in a performance and lose by a couple of points. We’re training to win a Munster final and the feeling at the end if we do it will something that all of us will never forget. And it will be something that we’ll never ever experience again. We seem to have a killer instinct and hopefully it will turn us another good one on Munster final day.”
Maybe another man-of-the-match gong too.

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