There was something unique about the fact that 15 bachelors won the 1995 All-Ireland hurling title for Clare.
It wouldn’t attract so much attention these days. Now, for various reasons, married men are more the exception than the rule with inter-county teams. The same with fathers.
Noel Connors has just joined the latter club, his girlfriend having recently given birth to a boy, Cathal.
He becomes the fourth father on the Waterford panel after Shane Fives, Kevin Moran and Michael Walsh.
“It puts things in perspective, at times you’d be worrying about small things but if you’ve a child smiling up at you it puts a perspective on things,” says the Deise captain.
“You can use it as inspiration but it also makes you realise - without sounding cringey or cliched - the important things in life, what a privilege it is to pull on a jersey and train with a great bunch of lads.
“It’s happening more and more, you see the age profile of lads retiring. When I started, in 2008/09, fellas were in their early to mid 30s, and a lot of lads were hitting their peak in the early 30s.
“Now you have lads retiring at 28, 29, 30, and it’s the milage and demands placed on the body.
“I don’t think you’ll have too many lads in the next few years who’ll play much beyond eight years because of the demands on the body.
“They’re so intense and they’ve increased so much in recent years that it’ll be unsustainable.
“I think players are more conscious of wanting to travel, to have kids, to commit to their professions, to do other things.
“You’re young for a short period and I suppose when you’re young you can become very narrow-minded and focused on one thing, other things take a back seat.
“Now players are more attuned to what they want, they’re more emotionally attuned to making decisions about what they want.”
His former teammate Tom Devine is a case in point. He’d be quite the asset to current Waterford manager Paraic Fanning though his wanderlust and job as a junior doctor meant that his inter-county career was already stop-start before he finally pulled the plug last winter at just 23.
“The likes of Jack McCaffrey taking a year out, Shane O’Donnell was gone [to Harvard] for a while, those are lads who have to do other things outside their playing careers,” Connors observes.
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Becoming a father isn’t the only onerous task that the popular corner-back has taken on this year with Fanning having appointed him as team captain in succession to Moran.
He’s had a run at it during the Allianz League campaign, which wound up with him leading them out in Croke Park for the final which they lost to Limerick, though it’ll be different come May 12 when Waterford play Clare in their first big provincial game at Walsh Park since 1996.
“I don’t think it’ll be too emotional. The way I’ll take it on is it’s another game - that’s not to downgrade the importance of being at home or being captain, it’s obviously a huge privilege and honour, but you can’t let the emotions take over because that’ll take up too much energy.
“My job will be about trying to do the simple things right, which I’ve been trying to do for almost eleven years now with Waterford. That’s what it’s about for me.”
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