TJ Reid's longevity 'will never been seen again' says former Kilkenny teammate
Reid first came into the Kilkenny panel for the 2007 and has won seven All-Irelands, 13 Leinster titles, six Allianz Leagues and seven All Stars, while he was Hurler of the Year in 2015.
Richie Power has said that Kilkenny must lighten the load on TJ Reid next year as their talisman limbers up for his 19th year on the senior squad.
Reid, who turned 37 last month, is making himself available to Derek Lyng once again in 2025 despite younger teammates Walter Walsh, Cillian Buckley and Conor Fogarty all having recently retired on the back of July’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to eventual champions Clare, which stretched Kilkenny’s Liam MacCarthy Cup drought to a decade. Persistent knee problems forced Power out of the game after Kilkenny’s last All-Ireland win in 2015 when he was just 30, so he marvels at Reid’s powers of endurance.
He said: “I was only thinking about it the other day, like I’ll be 10 years retired next year and TJ, his longevity, I don’t think it’ll ever be seen again but I suppose in fairness to the chap, he looks after himself so well. Obviously his employment is within the fitness industry as well which maybe gives him a little bit more time to do the small things that people wouldn’t see, the recovery and the stretching and things like that.”
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For the first time since 2013, Reid failed to earn an All Star nomination this year but there was still little doubt over his value to the team, with his Leinster final display against Dublin one of the standouts as he hit 2-6 (2-3 from play).
However, Power believes that, at this stage of his career, he should be employed closer to goal rather than the helter skelter of the half-forward line.
He continued: “There’s no doubt about it that TJ has so much to offer the Kilkenny set up but, again, for me it comes back to the other younger players around him stepping up a level as well and trying to take the pressure off TJ to have to perform to a high level every day. Now I know in that kind of environment you’re expected to perform to a high level every day but certainly for TJ, there’s no doubt about it, there’s not as much in the legs as maybe there was three or four years ago.
“He’s probably after losing a little bit of pace in relation to trying to get away from a player but I still think someone of TJ’s calibre with his hurling brain, his aerial ability, his hurling ability, I still think he’s good enough to get away with all of that and it’s just how well Derek utilises him, where he decides to play TJ next year.
“If I was Kilkenny next year I’d love to see TJ in or around the edge of the square and leave him there and maybe have that aerial threat in around or maybe play him as a roving corner-forward, I don’t know. I wouldn’t expect TJ to be playing on a half-forward line and having to do all the dirty work around the middle third.”
The departures of Walsh, Buckley and Fogarty means that Reid and Eoin Murphy are the only remaining players with experience of playing on an All-Ireland winning team.
“I couldn’t speak any more highly of the three lads,” said Power, “but I suppose the time comes in everyone’s career where you’re not getting the game time that you feel you maybe deserve or feel that you want, you have to make the tough decision to maybe step away and, look, I don’t know would the three lads have been part of Derek’s plans for 2025 or wouldn’t they, but they had fantastic careers, the three of them.”
Kilkenny’s failure to win the All-Ireland this year means that they have equalled their longest ever drought (1947-57), but Power still believes that they can contend strongly next year.
“I think if you were to think a bit deeper, you’re looking at the under-20s. We’ve only won one under-20 or under-21 All-Ireland in the last 16 years. We haven’t won a minor All-Ireland since 2014. They’re probably the two standout statistics from a Kilkenny perspective.
“I think that’s where we as a county need to probably concentrate on and try and bridge that gap but every year you put on a Kilkenny jersey there’s pressure on you and there’s that expectation from the supporters that you’re going to be there or thereabouts and, in fairness, this team has been in the last 10 years.
“I know from talking to one or two of them there over the last couple of weeks that there’s a burning ambition there to win an All-Ireland with Kilkenny. I have no doubt that they’ll do everything that they can to try and do that and I do think it’s going to be a bit of a rebuild for Derek.
“We’re going to see a lot of youth, we’re going to see a lot of new players given a chance throughout the League but I don’t think Kilkenny are going to be a million miles away. I genuinely believe that.”
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