Kilkenny's Joey Holden shares his thoughts as he is named AIB GAA Club Hurler of the Year

Joey Holden of Ballyhale Shamrocks (Kilkenny) has been named as the AIB GAA Club Hurler of the Year at a special AIB GAA Club Player Awards ceremony at Croke Park. Here he shares his thoughts.

Joey, this season saw you win your fifth AIB GAA All-Ireland Club Hurling title, but it is the first time you have been named the AIB GAA Club Hurler of the Year. You join us from Guatemala – tell us how you are feeling?

JH:“It’s a huge privilege and an honour to be picked as AIB Club Hurler of the Year. It’s not something I expected, even to be nominated was a bit of a shock! It’s a credit to the club and the team that I’m a part of as well. We’ve had a phenomenal year and a great success capping it off winning the All-Ireland in Croke Park. That was the main goal and awards like these come afterwards, but certainly delighted to win this award. My family are there representing me and picking it up for me tonight. It just shows what GAA is all about and what we are all about in Ballyhale. It’s about families, and connections and our community, and I’m just honoured and privileged to accept this award on behalf of them.”

You had an extra special motivation when you came back this year. It was a special year for the club, but another motivating factor was Ballygunner. TJ Reid mentioned it recently, that there was talk about Ballygunner being the best club team of all time and that this was maybe disrespectful towards the achievements of Ballyhale Shamrocks in the last ten years. Was there a revenge mission in mind?

JH: “Certainly when you look back, but personally for myself being away and potentially not coming back, the lure was there of completing five-in-a-row for the 50th year of the club and I suppose that was the ultimate aim and the target, and we’d see after that if we could do it, and that was so special for the club. I suppose attention turned to the Leinster series and then we won that, and then the All-Ireland series. I think some performances in Leinster maybe didn’t do ourselves credit, and then I suppose going in to that semi-final we did have a revenge mission when you think about how the All-Ireland final went last year for Ballygunner. We were written off to a certain extent.”

“Listen, we just used whatever motivation we could in order to try and bring out a good performance that would get us to a Club All-Ireland Final, and then try and repeat that in the Club All-Ireland Final which we managed to do. When you look back, it is so, so special considering how things worked out for myself personally, in the circumstances coming home and our own family going through a tough time as well, the way it all worked out and I suppose hurling was the thing that kept being the shining light and kept keeping our spirits high, so to finish it off the way we did and get this award tonight it’s really, really special.”

Well you are not alone on the AIB GAA Club Hurling Team of the Year, many of your teammates are there too. Richie Reid, TJ Reid, Eoin Cody, Colin Fennelly, Adrian Mullen. What’s been realy impressive about Ballyhale Shamrocks over the years has been the regeneration, and Killian Corcoran and Darragh Corcoran are testament to that. How is it that you keep producing talent?

JH:“It’s a tricky one I suppose. In Ballyhale hurling is the number one thing. It’s not that we do anything special with the players… I suppose there is a history and a tradition there of hurling and young kids grow up watching older players succeed and representing teams in Ballyhale and Kilkenny and they aspire to be like that so I suppose that gives them that drive and hunger to work hard and keep developing themselves. So when they come in to the senior panel and get the opportunity to watch these players and mark these players and try to improve themselves.”

“So, I think there is no great secret of they are doing this or doing that. I think they are going down and enjoying their hurling and trying to develop the whole time. I think huge credit has to be given to the whole panel in Ballyhale this year. It can be a long year when you are getting to a club All-Ireland and I know that might sound a bit silly because people will say you are lucky to get there, but you still have to be dedicated no matter if you are Number 1 or Number 32 to the whole process, because without them we wouldn’t be there.”

“Killian and Darragh have been exceptional. Killian has come on to the panel this year and sometimes its hard when you are a young chap to kind of spot but he’s maybe had some disappointments throughout the year when he started some games and didn’t start other games but that didn’t phase him at all he just kept the head down and kept working hard and showing it in his performances by saying “You have to pick me in the team, you can’t keep me off the team, find a place for me.” Hopefully that’s only the start for him. He has a lot of work to do keep improving and to keep working hard.”

“Darragh has been exceptional. You sort of have to pinch yourself when you remember that Darragh is still in college, he seems like he has been around for years almost. But he just does his job really really well. He’s strong, he’s physical, he’s fast. At half-forward, going back down the field it doesn’t bother him, he’s able to communicate with the backs very well, and do his job. He’s very good then when he’s going forward – he’s a nightmare for a back to mark, he’s very fast and hard to catch. He’s been exceptional as well and gone from strength to strength, and looking forward to seeing how he goes with Kilkenny this year and hopefully he can make that next leap forward in to inter-county.”

“That’s it really, that’s the magic to the success. It’s a panel effort but we have some fantastic hurlers in the likes of Colin and TJ, but other lads have bene unbelievable, Paddy Mullen, and the Ronan Corcoran, our captain this year has been a phenomenal leader. Paddy has had some great games. Brian Butler, the way he came on against Ballygunner and slid in and done a great job. Dean (Mason) has been fantastic in goal. Evan has been up and down that pitch non-stop as well, and then looking to the forwards, Adrian and Eoin Cody, Niall Shorthall jumping in there, Joey Cuddihy… Some fantastic players right throughout the field, and they all work so hard to keep improving and I think that’s the key to it.”

You are away from home. Have you been in touch with everyone or have you taken a complete break from hurling?

JH: “It’s different, that’s for sure. I’m keeping tabs on how things are going at home through social media and what not to see how Kilkenny are going. I know the Ballyhale boys will still be resting at this time of year. I’d say when it gets in to the nitty-gritty and the business end of the year you will certainly miss it but we are enjoying it so far and this has been the plan for a long time. There has been slight changes here and there, but looking forward to travelling and seeing parts of the world but I’ll certainly be keeping in contact and touching base to see how everyone is getting on back at home.”

As a hurler both with club and county I imagine your weeks and months were planned out to a tee… you knew exactly what you were doing and when you were doing it. Now that you are travelling – how are you handling the change?

JH: “Yeah, it’s different. My life was very much planned out to training Wednesday, Friday and Sunday and then you do your gym in between, so it is a little different to that. We have a general idea of what we want to do, but it is a bit open ended. Looking forward to some of the main highlights in Guatemala like going to see an active volcano, maybe doing some diving in Honduras and climbing Machu Pichu in Peru, and then into the Amazon in Ecuador. So that’s the highlights that we have to look forward to and that’s the plan, but we are enjoying the open-endedness which comes with travel, but we will keep going as long as the money will last us, so thoroughly enjoying it. You miss home but that’s just part and parcel of the experience.”