It all adds up for sharpshooter Duggan as he juggles hurling with college exams

The scoreboard won’t contain the only numbers that matter to Peter Duggan this month.

The Clooney-Quin forward was top scorer in last year’s All-Ireland hurling championship, his free-taking helping him amass a total of 3-76 over the course of a memorable summer and earning him a spot on the end-of-year All Star selection.

Waterford’s Walsh Park will provide the starting grid for Clare’s drive towards a first Munster senior title in 21 years next Sunday week, but figures of a different kind will be on Duggan’s mind less than 24 hours later when he sits a college accountancy exam.

A final year business and sport student in Limerick Institute of Technology, that will mark his last formal test after six years in college and he was only half-joking when suggesting there would be a car waiting outside Walsh Park to take him home after the game.

“The next two weeks will be tough,” he said. “I have a schedule all made out. I know what time I will commit to studying, what time I will commit to cooking food, getting gymwork in.

"I have an Excel sheet at home and I’ll know from [this] morning on where exactly I will be.

There will be many other hurlers in the same situation. I know the majority of college lads in Clare have all got exams around the same time. It’s the same for every county player who is a student.

"But once you prepare yourself right there is no fear. I’m not fazed by it all.”

Similar stories are to be told around the country between hurlers, footballers and camogie players — and in ever greater numbers now than ever before as the demands on players rise and squeeze out more and more with professions and family commitments that take precedence.

Limerick’s Tom Morrissey is another member of the younger brigade juggling studies and hurling.

The 22-year old will complete a four-year Masters in tax at UL when he sits the last of four exams on May 13, six days before the All-Ireland champions begin the defence of their crown.

He has no Excel sheet prepared but he will divide his time between two pressing needs for the length of the summer as he has a thesis to prepare before leaving the classroom behind and taking up employment.

“I suppose it’s not ideal,” he said of the dual demands facing him and so many others, “but that’s life. The exams go on in May, but you know that. May is exam season.

“You just have to get on with it. I think if you want to play this sport and you are going to work, life is all about balance and it’s just about organising yourself and making sure that you are able to perform at the elite level both on the pitch and off it.”