It seems that, with the vast majority of talented sportspeople in Ireland, there’s a tale of a club or a sport that missed out on them.
Some of the country’s soccer players could’ve been Gaelic football stars.
Some of the rugby players could’ve been hurlers.
And some of the best GAA names could well have made it elsewhere too, like in rugby.
When you get older, when you get a career, when you get a family and the demands of each sport get bigger and bigger, it’s not possible to keep them up any longer – physically, mentally or emotionally. It’s barely even possible to play both football and hurling now with the club never mind anything else.
And Tipperary’s star forward Conor Sweeney is like so many other Irish sportsmen who showed real ability in a different field.
For him, it was with an oval ball as a number 10.
“I played rugby for six years when I was in school – I went to a rugby-playing school. I played for a year when I went to college and, after that, I just focused on the round ball,” he explained on the latest GAA Hour.
“It’s a great game. It’s a great game, in fairness.
“You kind of miss it when you’re watching games like last Saturday, the England-Ireland game but no rugby these days, unfortunately.
“When you’re playing it for seven years on the trot, you develop the skills and the know-how to go with it but I never thought about it too much to be honest. I always enjoyed it.
“When you’re playing out-half, you kind of have control over the game which I enjoyed. A lot of stuff would go through the out-half which suited me but I’m happy enough where I am now. With the knocks the rugby boys are taking these days, I don’t think I fancy too much of that to be honest.”
Sweeney went as far as having trials with Munster but, thankfully for Tipperary, he’s still with the round ball now.
Listen to his full thoughts on the game from 43:30 below.
