Tony Kelly: I’ll have to be told 'the legs are gone now, we're not bringing you back'

Clare take on Wexford with a place in the semi-finals up for grabs on Saturday. 

UP FOR THE CUP: Tony Kelly of Clare poses for a portrait with the Liam MacCarthy Cup at Spanish Point. Pic: Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Tony Kelly is talking time.

It’s two days after his fifth fruitless Munster final in his 12th season. If there are scars, you can forgive him if he’s not going to show them. If he is conditioned by or even numb to the pain by now, that is somewhat understandable too.

But this generational hurler will endure. Last year, Shane O’Donnell spoke of some of “The Class of 2013” putting an even more concerted effort into this season with the mind of possibly stepping away afterwards. Kelly, who doesn’t reach 31 until December, won’t be among them. Come to think of it, he doesn’t think O’Donnell will either.

"The older stagers, you're probably looking at SODS, myself, John (Conlon), Davy Mac(Inerney), Paul Flanagan, (Conor) Cleary, Cathal Malone, the lads who are hitting 30, 31, early 30s, I can't speak for them. But I know myself I have a goal in my head that it will be another few years anyway. I would never put a time on it. 'Aw, put everything into this year'.

"It's kind of a fairytale ending for some teams and some people but the likes of SODs now, we're under no illusion he is not going to be around for three or four years now.

"One positive out of the (Munster final) weekend, if there is any, we might see him back next year. It would be very hard for him to go in the form that he is in.

“He's only 30 this month? (June 15) He's still a young man. The hunger in him. I know there is a lot made of his (schedule). He doesn't come back until March but the training he does on his own. It isn't as if he sits on the couch. He's a freak of an athlete gym-wise. Even lifestyle-wise, he'd be top notch.” 

So is Kelly saying he has a target of exceeding Conlon’s championship appearance record, which currently stands at 63 (Kelly is at 60)? "Conlon won't be going anywhere either, I know he is 35 in September (his birthday is actually on Sunday) but he'll be extending out that record another day.

“A lot is spoken about TJ (Reid) and Hoggie (Patrick Horgan) in terms of longevity and rightly so but John is probably, I know we talk of legends in Clare, (Brian) Lohan and all of them, but he is right up there. Not just from a player perspective but from a public perspective.

“The shape he keeps himself in. He's a young lad at heart but even body-wise he is unbelievable, especially coming back from a cruciate during covid. What he has done with his body is unreal."

Conlon is as much an opponent as an ally to Kelly, especially in their WhatsApp group. “Conlon would be writing in, 'Jesus, that session last night was hard' or 'it was good' and I'd be like, 'Fuck, Conlon's getting one up. Boys are getting fit and what am I doing?' You know that kind of way?” 

So, no, as much as O’Donnell tries to convince him otherwise, Kelly won’t be following his buddy’s example and reporting for training in March. 

"I just love hurling, really. Hoggie did an interview, was it after the Limerick game, and I would really resonate with that. Obviously, you want to win. I love the winter. Like, I love all that. I'll be one of those who will have to be told that, 'The legs are gone now, we're not bringing you back the following year.’” 

He laughs: “I loved covid as strange as that sounds in terms of you were working from home but you were training constantly. He'd (O’Donnell) be telling me, 'Come back in March, it's great, it's great.' I'd be telling him, 'No, I couldn't.' It would just drive me mad.” 

To his cost, Kelly has learned the errors of over-training but this obsession of his had nothing to do with his latest ankle injury against Kilmaley last July, the same weekend as the All-Ireland final. As he says, “I just came out for the second half and it didn’t feel hectic.” He played on, of course, and went for a week in Spain hoping the rest would help but it did nothing.

The initial scan showed he had broken a bone in his foot, which put him in a boot and out of the club championship. However, when he took it off, while the bone had healed, the issue remained.

Seeking a second opinion, he went to Dr Stephen Kearns in Galway who diagnosed it as “a break across the shinbone down where the ankle was meeting the joint. So he said, ‘We'll take bone marrow from the hip, go in, glue it and you'll be fine.’"

Operated on just before Christmas, Kelly admits he have been back for this year’s league had he not “probably wasted” August and September in the boot. He returned as a substitute for the Munster opener with Limerick, working his way back to match fitness and starting the final.

He suffered some tendonitis on his knee “trying to rush it back” and missed the Cork game by “overloading” but otherwise he has had no complaints. "It was slow trying to get it right, 'arseing' with football boots, trying to get it comfortable again. There was a lot of messing around. Probably the week prior to the first round (Limerick) was when you'd go 'this is back' and hasn't caused me bother since."

It was also against Kilmaley in 2021 that his first ankle problem arose but that was a routine procedure and on the other leg. “They’re both bad now,” he smiles. “Everyone assumed it was just another job on the one I had already done. Lads would be asking you how the ankle is and I just didn't bother correcting them, ‘Yeah, grand, same thing, just getting the same thing done again.’” They would have included his students in St Flannan’s College too, the hurlers of whom give him great hope for the future long after he eventually gives up the inter-county game.

“We're lucky enough that we have our house in order under-age and you see the level of talent inside and this is only St Flannan's, a lot of our good lads are inside in Ard Scoil Rís.

“They're miles ahead (of) where we were at that stage. I'm seeing fifth years inside, they're walking past you and they're absolutely massive. They're huge. You'd be seeing what they'd be having at lunch, what they'd be doing so even coaching them inside I'd often find you'd learn bits and pieces that you can adopt to your own game even if you're only watching a 16-year-old or a 17-year-old playing because some of them are extremely gifted.

“Even watching the Offaly U20s, you'd always pick up something. Coaching is definitely something I'd like to get into. Whether or not it's something I'll get straight into, I wouldn't say for definite.” 

It's more certain Kelly will remain a playing hero for several years before that.