Paul Galvin has admitted he was close to retiring from inter-county football last year.
The 2009 Footballer of the Year spoke to manager Jack O’Connor a number of times about his frustrations in not making a contribution to Kerry’s 2011 season.
Comparing it to 2010 when he was suspended twice and missed Kerry’s All-Ireland quarter-final exit to Down, he felt last year’s campaign was worse.
"Last year was reallydifficult," Galvin said onSetanta Ireland’s iTalkSport programme yesterday. "As tough as 2010 was, last year was even more difficult. I did consider whether I would play on. I had a couple of conversations with Jack about it and I was closing to going. I just felt I had no more in me."
Declaring he’s feeling better than he was at 26 or 27 after fully recovering from a hip injury, Galvin felt he did little for Kerry in 2011 whenhe started the All-Ireland quarter-final against Limerick but came on as a sub in the games against Mayo and Dublin.
It meant Saturday’s game against Dublin was animportant one for him as well as Kerry.
"It was a big game for me personally because I had a tough year last year. I just felt I didn’t play any kind of a part or make any kind of a contribution, particularly in the final. I had built it up asa big game for myself,personally.
Whatever way you lookat it, it was probably more important for Kerry to win than Dublin anyway."
Galvin felt particularly for captain Colm Cooper last year after he had given so much to Kerry down the years.
"It’s (All-Ireland finaldefeat) how it affects yourrelationship with your team-mates is what I find hardest, especially with Gooch last year.
"I found that really difficult after everything he haddone for Kerry and maybe the greatest player of all time.
"We should have reallygiven him that opportunity (to captain Kerry to an All-Ireland title) but it’s never as dramatic as that."
According to Galvin, Kerry were careless in their tactics last year and were deservedly beaten in the final.
"Kerry, as we found out to our cost last year, would be quite cavalier. Maybe not so much this year but certainly last year we were verycavalier.
"We would be conceding a bit too much over the course of the year than we would have liked."
In an attempt to move on from last year, the 32-year-old has attempted to divorce himself from lastseason.
After being hit hard by the 2005 All-Ireland final defeat to Tyrone, he has learned to.
"2005 really affected me. I remember I didn’t want to go out, I wasn’t talking to my friends. I wasn’t really talking at all. It can affect your sense of self-confidence and sense of self-esteem. In ‘05, I couldn’t see us being beaten. It came as a big shock. The best team I’ve certainly faced was that Tyrone team. They were brilliant."
Galvin also revealed he switched back to Kerry from Dublin because of a lack of anonymity in the capital.
The Finuge man hadundertaken a fashion course in DIT but concedes he was naive about moving to Dublin.
"I thought I could come up, float around and be anonymous and train and do the college course but it was impossible to do."
Meanwhile, Galvinreiterated his belief thatprofessionalism will inevitably arrive in the GAA.
"I think it’s inevitable.People talk about professionalism being unsustainable; I can’t see it being any less sustainable than amateurism at the moment in terms of the difficulties that exist trying to sustain the amateur game.
"It’s obviously proving difficult because money is changing hands."
a d v e r t i s e m e n t
This appeared in the printed version of the Irish Examiner Monday, February 06, 2012
