Tim Tebow goes biblical with the Eye Black
The legendary baseball player, Babe Ruth was reported to be the first known player of any sport to don what is known as 'Eye Black'. You know the stuff – it's what American footballers like Tim Tebow wear below their eyes to prevent glare from lights as they look skyward.
In 1990 – and probably more for the craic as anything else – Tipperary's hurlers 'blacked up' as they faced an All-Star select in Toronto's Skydome for a unique exhibition of hurling in Canada's most peopled city.
It was the first known hurling match played under floodlight and although we had the Croke Park goal-fest final back in September, there haven't been too many since – championship-wise at least.
As a rule, hurlers don't tend to like playing under lights. Derry's Anton Rafferty is no different.
"It's nice to be back hurling but it'll be even better in a few weeks when can train in the daylight hours. Training under floodlights is just not the same" notes the Eoghan Rua man.
With Derry hurlers back training just after Christmas, a rota of Friday nights in Dunloy and Owenbeg floodlit sessions was punctuated with three games in Leinster's Kehoe Cup in preparation for the opening rounds of the league:
"At the minute, the snow and the rain would be hampering our preparations to a degree. We can and have been doing the gym work, and it was great to actually get out on the pitch in the Kehoe Cup, but ultimately you want to be playing and training in proper light."
With Kerry the visitors to Owenbeg this Sunday, the Kehoe Cup experience has been vital in blooding in new players and allowing injured players to feel their way back into match day action.
"Playing junior and intermediate with the club over the past few years, I'd not have seen much of the likes of Turlough Henry or Johnny O'Dwyer. However, what I've seen over the past months, I'm very impressed with. They're great additions to the squad."
It's a content hard-working squad at present with 'over 30 boys' at training every night according to Rafferty.
"The management did a lot of chopping and changing I suppose during the Kehoe Cup but they got to see over 30 lads playing for Derry. That can only be good going forward and I feel we're definitely better equipped that we were before."
If the playing squad is better equipped, additions to the management team have also bolstered the effort with Swatragh's Sean McGuckin now on board.
"Sean guided Swatragh to their first county title there year before last so it's obvious he really knows his stuff and what he is at. He would be very tactically astute and any of the lads you talk to would tell you how impressive he is to work with. He's a great addition to the setup. Tom [McLean] would take the lead a lot at training and then Ger takes over on match days".
Inclemency in weather conditions is something which be worked through at present. However, come later in the year when the inter-county season draws to a close, Rafferty's attentions will focus on the maroon and green of the club jersey.
Although a team from Coleraine won it twice in the forties, 2014 will see Eoghan Rua compete in the Derry senior hurling championship for the first time since their formation, with adult hurling only really getting underway around 2001/02.
It's an opportunity which Rafferty is eagerly anticipating:
"I'd have loved it to happen 2-3 years ago to be honest. It's great opportunity to develop ourselves as much as anything else. There are challenges of course – we're a dual club and I'd reckon on any given day you could have twelve of the lads in the starting team in the hurling also in the football squad – it's difficult to balance the demands of both.
"I'd like to think that if we can get that balance right and the majority of our players on the pitch, then we can certainly put up a challenge to anyone."
Although Ruairi Convery is missing through suspension for Sunday's Owenbeg clash with the Kingdom, there are plenty of reasons to look forward to the season ahead for Ger Rogan's men. Not least, the welcome stretch in the evenings to come.
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