"You're going all year round" - Hutchinson
Ballygunner hurler Dessie Hutchinson pictured at the launch of this year’s AIB Club Championships which for the first season sees a single sponsor unite four codes of Gaelic Games, honouring #TheToughest players. Photo: INPHO/Dan Sheridan
Dessie Hutchinson would like to see a rest month introduced for club and inter county GAA. He has been flat out with Waterford, Ballygunner and Gaultier since returning to these shores in 2019.
"You're going all year round. It's a good complaint to have when you know you're doing well with your club and you're going from one season to another. I'd like to see something done about it where you'd have a month when there's nothing at all for teams whether it's club or county.
“Look, that's easier said than done. I'm probably at it now five years where there's been no real pre-season. It's tough. You know what, when you go back to your county team, you're behind in terms of your fitness.
“You're maintaining the one fitness level all year round and you need that break to get right back into proper shape for the inter county championship."
He feels that the GAA can squeeze in a down period for players. "There's definitely room in the calendar for it. The argument people will have is that there's only a certain amount of players affected. Maybe, if the club finals were played before Christmas, it might give an option for a Christmas break."
Despite the hectic schedule, the 27 year old has no intention to take a gap year. "I wouldn't want to take a year out or anything like that. Your career is short enough as it is not to be taking years out. I know people have plans to go travelling and stuff but while I'm fit and able to play the games I love, I don't think I'll be wanting to take years out.
“You do need to look after the body. This year, I came away with little niggles and that and you're not able to perform at the level you want to perform at. We'll see but I don't plan on it anytime soon."
Amazingly, Dessie has only suffered three competitive defeats since his return to the red and black jersey (Borris-Ileigh 2019, Shamrocks Ballyhale 2022 and St Thomas' 2023).
The Gunners start their Munster title defence in the Gaelic Grounds on Sunday. It's nine weeks since they beat Abbeyside by eighteen points and completed eleven in a row in Waterford. They have been down this road before.
"It is tough. You have such a long wait and you're trying to manage training correctly. There's a couple of us that went back playing football so that took our mind off it. We took a couple of weeks off after the county final and then went back to it.
“You can't play too many challenge games or anything like that because other counties aren't finished their championships. It's tough but thankfully, we have the experience of the last few years to go off that template and that's what we've been doing."
Hutchinson missed the group stages of the championship but shot 1-12 from play across the three knockout games against De La Salle, Passage and Abbeyside. Darragh O'Sullivan's side peaked for county final day. "At the start of the club championship, we were probably underperforming,"
Hutchinson admits. "There was a bit of talking coming into the county final that we might be overturned. We used that for own motivation, doubled down on it and we gave our best performance of the year. Hopefully, the graph keeps going that way in terms of our performances."
