Mullane steps back to prolong career

Waterford star John Mullane last night insisted he is “stepping back” from county training in a bid to prolong his inter-county career.

Mullane has confirmed he has withdrawn from the senior panel, as revealed by The Irish Examiner yesterday, due to family and work commitments.

However, the De La Salle clubman, who turned 31 last week, is adamant the move will help keep him and his county in the long term.

Mullane also lifted the lid on the massive demands being placed on top flight players in terms of preparation and training.

He explained: “I wouldn’t consider what I’m doing as taking a break, it’s just stepping back from some of the training and doing my own thing. I sat down with the manager [Michael Ryan] a few weeks ago and I basically told him that I needed five to six weeks.

“When you get to my age — and I was 31 last Saturday — you have to have an understanding manager and thankfully I have that.

“Michael is after giving me the time I need, the permission to change my programme around to suit myself. I’m still training away in the gym, doing a bit of cardio. I’m not the kind of fella to abuse the body anyway but this gives me a bit of time, cuts down on a lot of the travelling, cuts down on some of the training.

“The way I’m looking at is, if I want to prolong my inter-county career then the more I can shorten the competitive year for myself the better it will be for me, for my family and for the team. Tony Browne is 39 this year and still in great shape because he looks after himself — I’m doing the same.”

The demands on his time were what Lar Corbett cited as his reasons for stepping away from the game he has graced for over a decade, and those demands, according to John, are becoming more and more excessive.

“There aren’t enough hours in the day nor enough days in the week to be able to do everything that you want to do, at the level you need to reach, if you want to be successful. My daughter Abby is five and my youngest, Katie, is 14 months. I had it handy last year, Stephanie (John’s wife) was on maternity leave for nine months and I had more or less a free run at the year.

“But there’s been a big difference this year with Stephanie gone back to work. I leave the house at seven in the morning, then collect the kids at 3.30pm; try to keep them entertained for a few hours until Stephanie comes in and then you’re straight out the door again and off to training.

“It’s a colossal commitment. You have weights sessions, you have hurling sessions, you have cardio sessions, you have recovery sessions, you have on-field sessions — it never stops.

“People don’t see that, they only see you when they go to matches and see the team performing on the day but they don’t see what goes on behind the scenes.”

It’s a case of priorities changing, says Mullane.

“Hurling was always number one in my life when I was single, I could give all my time to it, buthurling is now number two — my number one priority is my family, Stephanie and my two daughters. I don’t have the luxury I used to have when I was single of having no worries outside of hurling. It’s a big difference when you’re married with young kids, you have more commitments, and on top of that you’re trying to hold down a job, which has become even moreimportant in the current environment.”

No suggestion then that he’s stepping aside, certainly no suggestion that he is in any way soured at being overlooked for the captaincy.

“I have no qualms whatsoever with Brick Walsh being appointed captain and I want that put on the record — it is absolutely not an issue. It would have been a great honour to have been chosen but Brick was a fabulous captain in ’08 and ’09; he has my 100% backing and the same goes for the whole panel. We’re 100% behind him.”

Contacted yesterday, county boss Ryan refused to discuss Mullane’ssituation: “I’ve nothing to say,” he said. “I have no comment to make.”