Mikey Boyle and the sobering chapters of a Kerry hurling story

A share of his eighteen year with Kerry were spent in the hurling weeds but the Ballyduff veteran appreciates the Kingdom's recent resurgence all the more for that. 

NEXT GEN: Bobby Boyle helps his father, Mikey carry his hurleys and helmet off the field after last January's Munster Hurling League game against Cork at Austin Stack Park. 

Mikey Boyle has lived through several different eras of Kerry hurling. Across 18 seasons in green and gold, he bore witness to good times, bad times, times of scarcely believable indulgence, and changed times that brought unfamiliar authority, discipline, and suffering.

36-year-old Boyle recently called time on half a lifetime spent toiling and thrashing in the green and gold. The Ballyduff clubman was a Kerry minor footballer in 2005 and a Kerry senior hurler in 2006. The latter remained his existence until he pulled the shutters down at the end of this season.