Long before he became Munster’s great fly-half hope, Jack Crowley had different ambitions. The young kid from Innishannon grew up wanting to be Joe Deane and even went as far as wearing a yellow beanie hat to imagine himself in the Cork hurling great’s trademark helmet.
Yet while Crowley never realised that ambition of representing the Rebels, the 24-year-old will step out at a sold-out Croke Park on Saturday evening determined to maximise this opportunity from the rugby gods and his make own mark on the famous turf when Munster go toe-to-toe with arch rivals Leinster.
“I used to have a yellow beanie when I was younger and used pretend I was Joe Deane,” Crowley said.
“I thought when I was younger I was going to be Joe Deane with his yellow Cooper helmet on, taking frees up in Croke Park. That’s who I wanted to be and going there to All-Ireland finals, it was a while for Cork but 2010 (SFC final) and whatnot, being there, it’s a special place.
“It’s got a special place in Irish history.
“We were having coffee this morning, talking about our own experiences of being there to support our own counties and so it’s special, it’s a cool place to play.
“I’m grateful that we do get that opportunity this week from the GAA, that collaboration for Ireland as a whole it’s good.”
Crowley is confident he made the right decision to pursue rugby glory but though he does possess a Cork Minor Premier One Football medal from Valley Rovers’ 2017 final success over Kilshannig, gracing the Croke Park turf as an inter-county player was not a realistic ambition.
“No, I don’t think so. I loved hurling, but I was better at football. No, I was good but I wasn’t at inter-county level – to give them lads the respect.
“You’d know when you come up against the team and there’s that one lad who you’re told is the fella who is on fire; the stuff they could do, the control of the ball they had, you knew you were far away from it.
“Rugby was coming, at 12 or 13 I shifted to it, but it’s a game I’ve loved and still do love watching. It’s special.
“I played with a few underage, until 20s and stuff, who would have been top of the team at the time was Charlie Lyons. He was able to do it all, he went over to Preston for soccer, but he was one of those fellas that teams needed to mark, they had to put two or three lads on him.
“His skill level in the game, you had to appreciate it.
“We had a good team. We won my last year of minor football, Premier One football, it was my one and only trophy. We were down in Carrigaline, we beat Kilshannig so, yeah, we faced them three times that year. Last year, last trophy. The one and only.”
Despite his exalted status as the Munster and Ireland number 10, he has not met his childhood idol Deane though he has struck up a friendship with another Cork hurling great.
“Seán Óg Ó hAilpín, he lives up the road from me and him and his partner have a little coffee shop and he’s just a mad sports enthusiast so I get chatting to him there. He was one of those fellas I was watching playing, with his stripey socks pulled right up.
“They’re all memories that I’ve had since a young fella.”
Crowley has purposely not sought out Seán Óg’s inside track on Croke Park, preferring to wait and let the experience wash over him.
“I haven’t tried spoiling the thought of the day because ultimately that’s all brilliant, it’s a special occasion and to play there and stuff like that but you’ve got to embrace it.
“To be honest, I think that came later on in the week, when you start stripping it all back and focusing on the game. But at the moment it’s about getting us in a good place to perform and then just being grateful for the opportunity as a group that we get to play there in front of people who have been travelling up for All-Irelands and whatnot, particularly Limerick people who’ve been up and down a good bit so they’re familiar with it.
“No, we’ve spoken about it but just, again, it’s about going up to Dublin and needing to perform.”
The sense of occasion wrapped up in what is actually a regular round four league fixture, is not lost on this group of Munster players as they prepare for what maybe their only opportunity to at Croke Park before Leinster return to a refurbished RDS next season.
Crowley envies his rivals’ access to GAA Headquarters but it is clear the venue means as much to Munster players as it does to the home side, and that outweighs their rival’s prior experience of playing there last season against Northampton Saints in a Champions Cup semi-final last May.
“For them it’s a real cool opportunity that they do get to play in such a special stadium. But for us as a group, like I said, having a coffee and chatting about it, having an open chat about memories and stuff like that, I think the memories of the place and the history speaks long enough not just for one individual. It’s important for the nation that there’s games happening there and it unites everyone.
“That’s really what Croke Park is, the history in it and unfortunately lives were lost and people that were injured and it was a Tipp man that was killed that day so there’s history in it and you can go way back.
“I think it does matter for a game, the feel and stuff, of the pitch being shorter and less but we’ll adjust, we’ll get on with it.”