All-Star hurler Jamie Barron turns his hand to the bigger ball on Sunday when The Nire face Killarney's Dr Crokes in the Munster Club SFC final.
The Nire's sister hurling club Fourmilewater reached the county quarter-final this year and the Waterford man says the club's novel approach to dual players has allowed them to compete at senior level in both codes.
“It's one parish, the area is called Ballymacarbry," he explains. "You’ve The Nire at one side of it, and Fourmilewater is the other side, it’s all the same lads. It’s the same club.
"We do 50-50 in the club. Benji Whelan is the manager of the hurling and the football.
"If we have hurling in two weeks’ time we’ll hurl for the two weeks coming into that, if we’ve football we’ll stick with football. So it keeps alternating - whatever needs to be done, is done.
"Before we were always having problems. One manager over the football would want training on a Wednesday and the hurling manager would be the same. It didn’t work so that’s why we got Benji in and it’s working for us.
“He gets in a trainer every now and again. He gets in Michael Ryan who used to train Waterford, he’s in our parish. Then we’ve Jerome Stack training us in football every now and again. He works it like that to keep it fresh and keep everyone interested."
The UCC student, who was named in midfield on the All-Star hurling team, is enjoying the variety football offers.
"I’m enjoying it at the moment," he said. "It wouldn’t be as pressurised as the hurling would be, you can kind of relax and enjoy going training.
"There’s a great buzz around the place as well so we’re all enjoying it. Thankfully we’re in a Munster final and we’ve a good chance I believe.
“It’s tough on the body to be honest. We’re a dual club, playing senior in both. The (county) hurlers got to the middle of August and the (Waterford) Under-21s won the All-Ireland so that’s after pushing the fixtures back totally.
"Games and rounds called off. We’d been out maybe ten, 11 or 12 weeks in a row there at one stage. It’s all about recovery in between them games and trying to keep fresh more so than doing hard training.
"It’s more mentally draining than anything, you would want an aul week or two off here or there. You’ve the colleges as well, Fitzgibbon is just around the corner. The league is over alright but it’s just training non-stop, so any break you’ll take it. Probably around Christmas we’ll have a few weeks off and recharge."
The Nire reached the Munster decider in 2014 but were edged out by Kerry's Austin Stacks.
Their semi-final victory last month over Cork champions Carbery Rangers might have surprised many onlookers but it didn't surprise Barron.
"We beat Carbery Rangers and I wouldn’t say we’d be shocked at all," he said." If you looked at the betting odds for us, I think we were 9/2 and they were 1/6 or whatever. Anyone you’d talk to would be saying: they have that very wrong.
"That’s good for us, people probably are underestimating us a bit but that makes it easier to play when you’re the underdog.
"You literally have nothing to lose when you’re not expected to win, that helps us but teams will start to realise Waterford club football is a good standard with Ballymacourty and Stradbally.
"We know how good our players are, senior players like Shane Walsh and Liam Lawlor who have experience of playing county, and you’ve Thomas O’Gorman who is all football experience along with (his brother) Maurice.
"So we have experience and we have youth as well. We have Conor Gleeson as well. Thankfully we’re getting the rewards from the group.
"In 2014 we got to the Munster final as well, last year didn’t go so well for us and we found it hard to pick things up. This year we got back to basics, set out our stall to win the county and took it from there then."
In Dr Crokes they face a team who won Munster three times in a row as recently as 2011-2013. But Barron is relishing the challenge.
"Obviously, Crokes are a serious club team and have won so many Kerry and Munster titles but If you can’t believe you’re going to go in and test them and try to beat them, you’re not in with much of a chance. We’ll give it everything we have and hopefully we’ll be there or thereabouts.
“You’d be quietly confident. You wouldn’t be going around saying 'we’ll beat Dr Crokes' but you have to think they can be beaten.
"If you perform to your best and work to your strengths and exploit any weaknesses, you’ll be there or thereabouts."
As for the opponent's star man Colm Cooper, will Barron be picking him up?
“I don’t think I’ll be near him. I don’t think the manager would trust me on him!"
