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14th February 2024
09:05am GMT
Micheál Burns was taken off at half-time of Kerry's recent Allianz NFL loss to Derry. Sportsfile.[/caption]
In their phone conversation, Griffin warned Burns about the void the decision is going to create in his life. "He could have ups and downs," said Griffin.
"If you read Dan Carter’s book, and I found it myself, the big part that is so underestimated is when you retire from something you have done all your life and all of a sudden your identity doesn’t have that attached to it, it can leave a massive void.
"Now, I busied myself with other things.
"I’d other things to go onto.
"But the likes of Micheál, he's a teacher, his world is small without football so we spoke about that last night on the phone, he could have ups and downs.
"It’s part of a grief or a loss. The thing he said he’ll miss most is meeting up with the lads four times a week."
"Your world gets very small and they move on, it’s very ruthless."
"The next guy is in and they’re only thinking about their individual performances, they might not have time to meet up with him.
"So I was talking to him about that last night, that it doesn’t mean the friendships are gone and to stay in touch with everyone.
"If you read Dan Carter’s book, he really struggled with that and a lot of athletes do.
"Every player is different and every player hides or shows their inner world differently," added Griffin, who's Laochra Gael will be on TG4 this Thursday night.
The Clare-man says that it was evident to him over the last few weeks that Burns wasn't overly happy in the panel.
[caption id="attachment_297933" align="alignnone" width="1300"]
15 January 2024; Former Clare hurler Tony Griffin attends the launch of TG4's award-winning Laochra Gael series at the Light House Cinema in Dublin as the Gaelic sport biography series returns for another season. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile[/caption]
"As I said, Micheal’s heart was on his sleeve and you’d probably just have a sense from looking at him.
"Other players then keep it under the lid, and you look at players like Dylan Casey who was injured for a lot of last season and he’d had a great 2022.
"Dylan is a different type of character and just everything is inside and he’s so solid, so players show it differently.
"But if you’re watching; and that’s what my role really is, to kind of sense the mood of things and kind of watch players’ body language and if things don’t go right for them in training or a game, see how they are reacting.
"Some people are an assassin like David (Clifford) is, and they don’t show much and other people show a lot.
"So you are just watching for their body language really.
"But it’s as different as people, your siblings are all different, your friends are all different and players are all very different in how they express how they feel about their careers is different. The trick is to understand that from the start."
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