'I was crippled': Richie Hogan on retirement, his career and why Kilkenny will win the All-Ireland

The Cats legend says he couldn't have given more in battle to get on the pitch.

TOP CAT: GAAGO pundit Richie Hogan. Picture: INPHO/Ben Brady

With a heavy heart, Richie Hogan relented on his Kilkenny career in September.

Pain barriers broken, threshold of excruciation surpassed, it wasn’t a question of him not being able to take anymore: he simply couldn’t do any more.

This year, we knew about the broken arm against Cork in the Division 1 semi-final but there were two 11th-hour withdrawals with the back ailments that have caused him grief for most of his inter-county career.

After returning from the arm fracture to appear as a substitute in the Leinster SHC round game against Antrim, Hogan was fit to be considered for the provincial final against Galway only to pull out the night before. He had been forced to do the same prior to the league game against Waterford in mid-March.

“It was the Friday night training session,” he recalls of the Leinster final setback. “I had driven down from Dublin and had I stopped to get something to eat. As I was getting out of the car, I hurt my back and I was completely crippled. I wouldn’t have been able to move. I wouldn’t have been able to stand.

“I was completely twisted. So I spent a couple of hours on the physio table, took a bit of medication, a few painkillers to kind of release a bit of pain. But this had happened to me before. I was there literally just trying not to seize up.” 

Hogan’s back has paid the cost of playing too much sport in his teenage years and nobody advising him to stop or at least prepare him for such a harsh load. 

“I was on all teams up above a couple of ages playing multiple sports. I was going every night of the week; 14, 15, 16 games a week. Games, training sessions, school, county, club, soccer and handball. So eventually that takes its toll.

“At that time, we didn’t have a strength and conditioning coach or a full-time physiotherapist on any team I’d ever been on until I got to a senior inter-county level. So you don’t have that full overview. You don’t have any testing. You don’t have any assessment. You don’t have any of that expertise. I think I just suffered a little bit from that. Eventually that just wore me down.” 

To be match-fit, Hogan required ample physio and injections. Two days prior to starring in the 2016 All-Ireland semi-final win over Waterford, he couldn’t walk. Pain or fear of injury was never an issue for the 35-year-old.

“Even when I was younger, I remember breaking my ribs and puncturing a lung in the last round of the league and I remember going out to play a league final four weeks later and I wasn’t in the slightest bit nervous.” 

Obviously, he will need surgery down the line. A spinal fusion seems the course of action. “I have a couple of facet joints that are completely worn down. The joints need to be fused together. They grate off each and that causes back spasms.” 

Hogan retired with the last of his seven All-Ireland SHC medals being claimed eight years ago. Considering his senior Kilkenny career in its entirety, he is “incredibly happy” all the same.

“Like, Stephen Cluxton didn’t win any All-Ireland until he was 30 maybe. And he’s the most successful player to ever play the game. If you flipped his career around and he won nothing for the last 10, would he be disappointed? I don’t know.

“So I’m looking at it as a whole. And given what was thrown at me, I think I dealt with it well. Or as well as I could have. I literally couldn’t give any more. I couldn’t have tried any harder in those years to get on the pitch.” 

At last Monday’s GAAGO 2024 launch, Hogan was the only pundit of four who did not predict Limerick to be next year’s All-Ireland champions. Instead, he chose his own. “I just think that Kilkenny have the greatest capacity to improve of all of the teams. Limerick are clearly favourites. I am not denying that and they will be incredibly difficult to beat and I won’t be in the slightest bit surprised if they do win. And if they do win a few more, not in the slightest.

“I think Kilkenny holding on to TJ Reid, Walter Walsh, Cillian Buckley and a few of those guys, I think that’s a big thing for Kilkenny, with their experience.

“I look at players like David Blanchfield and how much I expect him to improve in 2024 after being outstanding this year, and a big loss in the All-Ireland final. And then Adrian Mullen and Eoin Cody, who are two of the best players in the country now. I expect them to get better.

“I expect Mikey Butler to get better. I expect Billy Drennan to get better. I think there are far more of the Kilkenny players that are not playing at their absolute highest potential yet and have so much more to go.” 

Hogan maintains Limerick will have to talk among themselves about the five-in-a-row tilt. “Some were mentioning that it won’t be mentioned in the dressing room and they will completely dismiss it. I think that would be a mistake because then you are actually making it an issue. Then you are creating this big elephant in the room.

“They should sit down, talk about it, address it, leave it there and concentrate on their job and I think they’ll do that.”