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You just nailed it. Tipp 6 players 30+ WH 0 players 30+ ' It's a young man's game these days.' Loughlenegale (Westmeath) - Posts: 23 - 20/03/2026 09:16:58 2661878 Link 0 |
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Robbie Greville 31 Joey Boyle 31 or 32 Aonghus Clarke 32 or 33 Aaron Craig 34 or 35 Liam Varley 31 Jogger Doyle 33 Darragh Clinton 30 or 31 (I think) Niall O' Brien 31 or 32 Davy Glennon 35 That's 9 what you would say were mostly starters in recent years from the Westmeath team of 2025 that are not lining out for whatever reason. From what I have seen and heard on Westmeath's social media in recent months most of them announced their retirements, maybe a couple of them didn't make themselves available or didn't announce retirement yet. They were great servants of the county and they decided to say they had enough for one reason or another, family, work, personal reasons etc. 35 is most lads limit, but a lot of lads are calling it a day in the early 30's now because the commitments to a county team are savage. Diet, training or playing matches as often as 4 or 5 nights of the week, mental preparation and recovery. That has a huge effect on lad's personal life and work commitments. What's a lad going to do at the end of the day after hurling? Marry the 34 inches of his own hurl? Westmeath haven't looked like winning in the Joe Mc for the last 2 years since they got relegated in 2023. Those lads mentioned above might make a difference and get us promoted but for how long? They'll be done in another year or two regardless. That's the reality. This transition phase was coming down the tracks no matter what. Be nice if a few elder statesmen held on to give a better balance of youth and experience, but they didn't. That's it. That Tipperary team mentioned are a team with All Ireland aspirations. The likes of McGrath, Forde etc won't be hanging around too much longer, but the base of that Tipp team now is the youth like McCarthy, Morris, Stakelum. It's easier to entice lads to stay on past 30 when you could have a Celtic Cross in your back pocket come next July. RadioactiveTan (UK) - Posts: 39 - 20/03/2026 10:34:08 2661888 Link 0 |