Brennan: Players may delay marriage to extend careers

Eddie Brennan believes more hurlers may postpone getting married to extend their inter-county careers.

The former Kilkenny star, who retired in January 2012 at the age of 33 having wed Olivia four years earlier, sees a trend in the growing list of players retiring this year.

Apart from injuries and the similar age profile, he notices several of the players who have retired in recent months are married, have started families or both. “It wouldn’t fall into your train of thought normally,” he said. “You go from match to match and it’s a bit like a carousel. It stops in the winter and you get back on again in December or January.

“A gang of us in Kilkenny got married around the same time. Derek (Lyng) and Henry (Shefflin) started the ball rolling in ’07 and ’08. Maybe there was a bit of peer pressure,” he said jokingly, “and you were saying to yourself, ‘Maybe it’s time to do it’.

“But you can see lads considering holding off on marriage. At 27 or 28, you’re at your peak as a player and you’re very much into it psychologically and how you’re able to take control of your performances from that aspect. That demands a lot of attention.

“It (marriage) is maybe a distraction you don’t need because of the players who are retiring now it’s certainly a trend. You tip over the far side of the big 30 and it’s no longer about where you’re at yourself but those around you. Your focus changes.

“You’re in the gym on the winter nights then going out for the runs and after the first two, you feel like getting sick and start thinking, ‘Why am I doing this to myself?’ Those groans become more prevalent. You’d prefer to train in the luxury of the gym in the winter then hit the field when the daisies start to grow.”

Brennan knows the age profile of the inter-county hurler is tumbling, as evidenced by Clare in particular last year. The less a player can be selfish, the shorter his career. “Everything is planned around the hurling season. You take the family holiday in winter and the freedom you do have during the season is a weekend here and there.

“It would have come into my thinking before I stepped away, like training in Carton House on a weekend in what would have been your own free time.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’d gladly love to go up there now, I’d gallop out the door, but you have bigger responsibilities with a wife and family.

“You planned your life around hurling. I know an awful lot of players do that because it has to be your complete focus. It’s utterly professional in everything but the pocket.

“When you want to be the best it has to be number one and everything else has to lose out.

“I’d have spoken with Derek (Lyng) and that need to be selfish but naturally it becomes harder to be that way as you grow older.

“The retirements now are testament to the requirements that are getting bigger and bigger. You do have to ask yourself ‘have I enough of this’.”

At least from a Kilkenny and Tipperary perspective, Brennan had anticipated some of “the game’s great hurlers” would put themselves out to pasture this year.

“I felt in the aftermath of the final they were on the way. Everyone would have guessed a few of them. The one common denominator is the age profile. These lads would have put in a fair bit of effort and carried their injuries too. Tommy (Walsh), Hogie (Brian Hogan), Stephen Hiney, Eoin Kelly, and Taggy Fogarty broke his ankle.

“It really just shows it’s a young man’s game now. Fellas married with kids, it’s become really difficult for them. I’m not saying impossible but I saw myself that my priorities had changed. As you get older, you need to do more time away from collective training to get yourself right. You need more time to recover but that means more time to yourself too.”