“If a player is good enough, he’s good enough.”
Damien Hayes is 34 years old but he has been retired for over two years now. When you hear him speak, you get a sense that he would have liked to have kept going.
He retired with a clatter of club and inter-county medals, as well as personal accolades, but elite sportspeople always want more. The medals are tucked away ‘with mammy and daddy’ and even though he is two years out of the game, he hasn’t truly reflected on his excellent achievements.
Hayes still has a real passion for the game and one thing he hates is when players on the wrong side of 30 find fans, coaches and members of the media writing their sporting eulogies. Hayes told The GAA Hour Hurling Show:
“I always remember an article I read involving Padraic Joyce, the Galway footballer. He recalled that once he got to the age of 30, everyone was asking him was he going to retire – ‘Are you going back for another year or are you going to retire?’
“Once I got to 30, that’s all I was asked too. There’s a perception within the GAA that once you hit 30, you’re finished, you’re not good enough, not fast, can’t do the training or can’t sustain it.”
Hayes used the examples of Paul O’Connell [above, left] playing for Ireland at a World Cup when he was 35 and Gianluigi Buffon retaining the Juventus and Italy goalkeeper jersey at the age of 39.
His views were backed up by former Dublin hurler Conal Keaney, who retired last year at 34. He points to midfielder Denis Bastick staying on with the Dublin footballers for another run at Sam Maguire despite turning 36 later this year [May].
“He’s not there for 70 minutes each game but he has a huge input to that squad,” said Keaney.
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