Hurling decides our working life now, says Jamie Barron

Jamie Barron admits inter-county players’ career paths are dictated by their hurling aspirations. The in-form Waterford midfielder makes no secret of the fact hurlers are choosing occupations to complement what they hope to achieve in county colours.

“Everything from our point of view goes into it,” says the UCC student,now on a work placement with Dawn Meats in Grannagh, Co Waterford. “You nearly choose your job over what you want to do. There’s a lot of fellas teachers and I’d say it could be solely because of inter-county commitments or whatever, so that’s the way it’s gone.

“Brick (Michael Walsh) is the only one with a child on the team so he’s the only one that maybe has pressure at home at the moment, but that just shows that the age profile has gone down in years. Maybe it’s tougher for older players to keep going but it’s no problem to Brick anyway.