Not giving more to the club still a big regret for Power

It’s been a busy couple of months for Richie Power. Just late last year he was part of a book written on his family by Dermot Keyes and now, this week, he becomes the latest in a long line of Kilkenny stars - the list features Eddie Brennan, DJ Carey, Anne Dalton, Jackie Tyrrell, JJ Delaney, the Downey sisters, Eoin Larkin, Tommy Walsh, Henry Shefflin and Eddie and Willie O’Connor - to be featured on the well acclaimed TG4 Laochra Gael series which airs at 9.30pm on Thursday.

The former Kilkenny forward is happy with the way the production has worked out.

“I don’t know if I was keen to get my story out there, but when we decided to go ahead with the book, we said we’d have to be as honest as we possibly can be,” he said. “People knew my story anyway after I did the podcast with Oisin McConville and it was part of my journey and part of my story.

“The gambling part of it was a big chunk of the book and I knew it was going to be a big part of the show as well.

“I didn’t really want it to be the main focus either like the book as that was more a family thing and it was about me and my dad and the lads at home as well as my mam and my sisters.

“I didn’t want the sole focus to be on my issues off the field,” Power added. “I think that’s came across well and all in all we are happy with the way things have turned out.”

While his gambling addiction came to prominence in recent years, the injuries he suffered when playing for the Cats are just as noteworthy as he reflects on the pain he felt during his career.

“Getting back with Kilkenny in 2014 and having the season I had, I definitely felt like there was a good few seasons left in me,” he said. “I was only 28, going on 29, and at that time the demands on the personnel and the body wouldn’t have been as high as they are maybe today.

“I was looking forward to pushing on with Kilkenny I suppose as I was getting to grips with my off-field issues and maybe stay going, but 2015 turned into a nightmare season and year for me and ended with me having to announce my retirement at the end of January in 2016.

“That was a huge disappointment and I think that comes across in the show. Of course I’d have loved another few years but probably more so with the club and give them eight or nine good years but unfortunately I wasn’t able to do that.”

Power finished up with eight All-Ireland senior hurling titles in total and even though he overcame the odds to help Carrickshock to an All-Ireland intermediate club title in 2017 as an outfield star his injury problems restricted his club activity in intervening years and it’s something that does anger him.

“Not been able to continue with the club was a huge regret and I think there’s probably a bit of anger there as well that I wasn’t able to go back to the club because every player that calls time on their intercounty career has the intention of going back for a number of years,” he said.

“I went back and won an intermediate All-Ireland, so I can’t complain too much. I gave four years of management to the team, something I saw as my way of giving back to the club, but I’m still only 38. I’d love to be still hurling now and I should still be hurling now - that’s the reality of it.

“It wasn’t to be though and I’ve grown to accept that and moved on from it but there are regrets there.”

The 38 year-old has managed the club in recent seasons and was in the running to replace Pat Hoban in charge of the Shamrocks, but he outlined the process that has now seen him take on a new role in Wexford.

“I had a conversation with Ballyhale and when it came to decision time, I actually pulled my name from the running,” he said.

“It was nice to be thought about for a job of that magnitude, but it wouldn’t have been the right decision.

“I just got the feeling that the players wanted a different direction and they wanted some of the previous management involved while, personally, I wanted my own management and to freshen things up completely. That’s the feeling I got and if the players aren’t going to be fully happy, at the end of the day they are the most important people in a setup.

“For that reason I pulled my name from the running on the Tuesday before the committee met and I’m happy with it.

“I’m actually going down to Wexford with Shelmaliers for the coming season and that’s where I’ll be plying my trade for the year ahead.”

Power’s story is certainly well worth the watch and the two-time All-Star goes into detail about how he was first dropped from the Kilkenny squad as a result of his issues off the field.

“Brian Cody and the Kilkenny management were maybe hearing stories off the field and maybe there was people saying it to them in relation to how I was spending my time and having spoken to a good number of the players since then including Jackie (Tyrrell) who speaks in the programme, they weren’t really aware of it,” he said.

“I suppose I was able to go into training and put on a brave face and a persona that I was grand when really I wasn’t and the players just never really picked up on that.

“At that stage I would have gone into training and then gone home. You wouldn’t have been socialising together because you were training and I wouldn’t have really spoke to any of the players about it as it was all a very big secret at the time.

“The players certainly weren’t aware of it and obviously the management team had caught wind of what was going on with me off the field. I suppose they saw it as something they didn’t want around the setup in 2014 after the disappointment of the 2013 season and I had to accept it at the time and make a big decision on what I was going to do going forward.”