‘Part of me is happy that the crowd will not be there’

• Author: Gavin Cumiskey
• Published date: 19 December 2020
• Date: 19 December 2020

When elders of the hurling tribe call you a mythical giant, your achievements are already beyond most mortals. To be branded a fathach by Joe Connolly ("People of Galway, we lavvvv you") makes tomorrow's return to coach in front of an eerily silent Clan terrace all the more significant.

John Muldoon is coming home, just for a short while. "Part of me is happy that the crowd will not be there. Another part of me would love to see a full Sportsground, but what would I do looking down at my Mum and sister in Connacht scarves shouting for Connacht? It's like a derby game, isn't it?"

The Bristol Bears - sans Semi Radradra, who was controversially injured playing for Fiji - are expected to avenge a crushing defeat to Clermont Auvergne. Muldoon's multicultural pack is expected to profit from the draining heroics of his Connacht brethren against Racing in Paris last Sunday.

Expectations can often go awry when that western wind blows in.

Whatever the result, the Pat Lam circus rolls back into Galway. It is a pitstop that will ruin one team's European campaign before they can face any more French giants.

"It will be very, very strange going back," Muldoon admitted. "Last time I stood in the Sportsground was to clean out my locker the day after my last game [a 47-10 thumping of Leinster in April 2018 capped off by his cheeky conversion].

"Moving to Bristol three weeks later meant I didn't have time to digest it. It was just on to the next thing. I would have liked to get back to watch them but that is not how it materialised with my new job."

Hurling blood

Tomorrow is an important footnote in the post-playing career of the man they call "Mul". Portumna's second most famous son (after a certain Joe Canning) slips into the sleeping west. No Liam MacCarthy this year despite four mesmerising sideline cuts by his neighbour against Limerick. No minor title either, like Muldoon's in 2000, because it cannot be completed until January at the earliest.

Hurling blood courses through Muldoon's veins. The mystery of why the IRFU have been unable to unearth upgraded versions of him from that handsome town deep in GAA country remains unsolved.

The "Gah-bred" athletes who have achieved global recognition can be listed on one hand. Muldoon is the obvious one, but a wonder exists as to why careers similar to Shane Horgan, Seán O'Brien, Tadhg Furlong and Alan Quinlan have not been replicated by scouring the pitches of south Galway, Meath and the sunny southeast, to offset an...