Hurney calls time on Waterford career

Waterford’s Gary Hurney has announced his retirement from intercounty football.

Hurney, who made his championship debut as an 18-year-old against Cork in 1999, has cited family commitments and injuries as the reasons for ending his 15-year senior career.

Although he featured in Ballinacourty’s county championship winning campaign this year, he hadn’t trained since Waterford’s agonising one-point defeat to Galway in the All-Ireland qualifiers in July.

He had his second knee operation in seven months the week after that loss to Galway. He also suffered a knock to his neck in that game and it was only after the club’s two-point loss to Cratloe in the Munster semi-final last month, that the 33-year-old discovered he had two bulging discs.

With two young boys under the age of three and his partner having a job that involves shift work, it all added up to a decision he felt he had to make.

Hurney, who also played for the county’s hurlers for three years under Davy Fitzgerald, and was a panellist when they reached the 2008 All-Ireland final, has been a regular on Munster football teams competing in the interprovincial series.

He starred as the Déise earned promotion to Division 3 in 2010, although the memory of realising the dream of playing in Croke Park is tainted by the two-point loss to Limerick in the Division 4 final.