Many thought that if Paul Galvin was going to call it quits at inter-county level, it would have been following the Championship in September. Instead it looked like he was going to play on for another year.
So it came as a surprise when he announced his retirement earlier this month. The All-Ireland winner has now expanded on his reasons:
A little bit of the fun went out of it, you know. Things like the gumshield I found tricky. Like, I played a couple of games and I ended up just throwing it on the ground. Nobody would notice if you weren’t wearing them but I couldn’t talk.
I couldn’t get my wind and I couldn’t talk to fellas so you’re having to take them out and then I was running around holding mine and the ball would come then and you’d throw it away and go for the ball.
Things like that might seem small and silly but, like the black card thing as well, that was probably another little thing that you say to yourself, ‘This could be tricky’.
Galvin also cited the lack of familiar faces on the current Kerry panel as another reason for calling it a day.
[Irish Examiner]
