Dessie Hutchinson has seen both sides of it.
Just five years ago, he was a Premier League hopeful with stars in his eyes. Brighton and Hove Albion were a club on the rise and the Waterford youngster was highly rated.
The sky was the limit. He had high hopes.
Hutchinson was on the cusp of it, having captained the clubs’ under-23 team, and a breakthrough didn’t seem too far away for the midfielder.
“It’s so cut-throat you wouldn’t believe it” – hurling the dream for prodigious Waterford youngster
Unfortunately, he never really made it in England and returned home in 2018. Played a little bit of League of Ireland football but eventually decided it wasn’t a viable career move. He no longer plays the game anymore, and is targeting a call-up to the Waterford senior hurling team.
Aaron Connolly comes from similar stock. He was a hurler too as a youngster, with Galway club Castlegar, and also made the move to south England as a sprightly teenager.
Three years on from Hutchinson’s arrival and here was a new Irish kid on the block. Their spells at Brighton overlapped and speaking at the launch of the AIB club season, the Ballygunner man spoke about the characteristics he saw in Connolly and how he tried to take him in under his wing when he first arrived.
“He is an unbelievable player, he just needed that chance to flourish,” said Hutchinson of Connolly’s recent rise.
“Thankfully he has done that, it has been a great couple of weeks for him. Hopefully he will stay level headed, keep his hard work going. If he does that he will have no problems…”
Hutchinson is well versed on the perils of the modern game, and he has some advice for Connolly.
“It is hard when you are over there. The Premier League is the biggest league in the world, all eyes are on you so you need to stay grounded. Hopefully he will do that because if not bad press will come, the whole lot will come for him. So he just needs to stay grounded, keep learning, and he will be fine…”
“Actually the first family I stayed with when I moved over, he moved in with them. We would always go for dinner. I helped him a bit when he came over, every young lad needs it. When I was going over I went with a lad from Bray, Dylan Barnett, he is playing with them now. So I was lucky I had him, for someone like Aaron, who was coming on his own, he needed to be looked after a bit. It is great, hopefully he is doing that with some of the young lads coming over now…”
It’s all about keeping level-headed and grounded.
“Especially for young players coming over from Ireland now, they are going to look at him and want to be like him. So it is important he stays grounded and speaks to the lads like he was when he was coming over. It is so important that first couple of months being over there. You either want to go home or stay there, it is one or the other.
Connolly looks like a fella who will have no problems.
Dessie Hutchinson and a host of GAA stars were at the launch of the AIB Camogie and Club Championship. For exclusive content and behind the scenes action throughout the AIB GAA & Camogie Club Championships follow AIB GAA on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat. Photo by Sam Barnes/Sportsfile
