Ryan and Reale call it a day for Treaty

VETERAN Limerick senior hurlers Damien Reale and Donie Ryan will not be involved in new manager John Allen’s plans for next season as they have announced their retirement from the inter-county game.

Allen is set to finalise his first training squad for the 2012 campaign by the end of this week, and in addition to the absence of Reale and Ryan, he is set to include players like Stephen Lucey, Paudie O’Brien, Eoin Ryan, Paudie McNamara, Pat Tobin and Kieran O’Rourke in his initial plans.

Several members of this year’s Limerick Munster U21 winning squad are being tipped for inclusion with Pat Begley, Shane Dowling and Conor Allis amongst those in the frame to receive a senior call-up by the former Cork All-Ireland winning boss. However it is understood that Allen and his Limerick management team will conduct regular reviews of the makeup of their panel, and the door has not been closed on the senior players who are in line to be omitted from the squad.

Reale, who captained the Limerick side that reached the 2007 All-Ireland senior decider and won three All-Ireland U21 medals between 2000 and 2002, last night cited work commitments as the reason behind his decision to walk away from senior inter-county hurling at the age of 30.

“I rang Joe Hannon, the hurling liaison officer, a couple of weeks ago and told him that I was calling it a day at inter-county level.

“He said fine, but that he’d get John Allen to ring me. I spoke to John for five or 10 minutes and explained my position, and that I was after starting my own company, Damien Reale Health & Safety Services Ltd.

“I would be working all over the country and just couldn’t give the commitment required. At the moment for example I’m stretched between two jobs, one in Clare, one in Wexford. I wished him and the lads all the best for the coming year. He accepted what I was saying, thanked me and told me I owed Limerick hurling nothing.”

Despite the fact that in his 10 years of playing at senior level with the county he has won nothing, Reale insisted that he has positive memories of his time lining out for the Shannonsiders.

“It’s the end of the Three Amigos – Mike O’Brien, Donie Ryan and myself, who travelled together to training for years, and had serious craic in that car! Mike was the first of us to go, and myself and Donie decided earlier this year that this would be it, our last year. Donie too has retired. I know I retired again in 2009 when I refused to hurl under Justin, but I couldn’t finish like that which was why I went back this year.

“It’s nice now to finish on a positive note. We had a good year under Donal O’Grady, won back a lot of the ground we had lost over the last few years. You can’t stay there forever and there’s some great young talent coming through in Limerick. I got 10 great years out of it and probably my best memory, is leading the lads out in the All-Ireland final of 2007. I had some great battles over the years. Everyone would talk about myself and Eoin Kelly of Tipperary but none of them were easy. I got great support over the years from my family, from my wife Sarah, from my friends, and I’d like to thank them now for that, but I’ve had my day and I’m looking forward now to being able to support the team and John Allen over the coming years.”