Richie Hogan, at the launch of the Electric Ireland Minor Championships. Photo: Dan Sheridan/Inpho The more Richie Hogan talks about hurling, the more the yearning to still feature on the pitch for Kilkenny slowly bubbles to the surface. Hogan, who made his senior championship debut in 2008, called time on a glittering career with the Cats last September, having extracted every ounce out of himself and defied medical science along the way to capturing seven All-Ireland SHC medals.
A series of injuries stemming from a crippling back problem undermined his progress in recent seasons, but the 2014 Hurler of the Year still showed the same magic when his body allowed. More often than not, that came in the latter stages of the season, so he isn’t missing it just yet as “it is only May and I haven’t played in May with Kilkenny for about five years. “I had a couple of years where I was doing absolutely everything I could to play.
I ran out of juice a couple of years ago, but still tried to get as much as I possibly could out of it,” Hogan said. “If I had packed it in at 32 when the body was breaking down, I’d have missed it a lot more. For now, I’m fairly content, I couldn’t play inter-county hurling now.
“Even at club level, I train, it is enough for club level. The thoughts of getting to inter-county level, the level these guys are currently at is a million miles from where I am. That is what I look at.
We’d all love to be out playing on the pitch. “I’m ma.