Pauric Mahony is happy with his decision to step away from inter county hurling. The Ballygunner sharpshooter stepped away in January after 12 seasons in a Waterford shirt and has no regrets.
“If you can’t give a hundred per cent to it, you’re fooling yourself and you’re fooling your
team mates,” Mahony explained at the launch of the AIB All Ireland Club Championships.
“With the inter county, you have to be all in or all out. There’s no in between. If you’re falling
somewhere in between, you probably need to start asking yourself questions. The club season
is going pretty long with Ballygunner; that’s one factor. A few injuries too, mentally they
took a bit of a toll on me. There’s other things in life that I want to start prioritising and give
more time to. I’m pretty content with the decision now I have to say.”
The 31 year old now has more energy to give outside the hurling field. “Your career, I’ve
built a house and plan on starting on a family. You’re tied down with a few other things. Just
being able to go off and enjoy a round of golf with my friends and still be able to switch into
that team environment when it comes to the club. Instead of being full-on for twelve months of the year, be full-on for six months of the year.”
Mahony is still scoring freely for Ballygunner. He has delivered 1-40 this season including a goal on county final day against De La Salle. Their defence of the Munster title starts with Cork champions Sarsfields on Sunday. “We’ve played them a few times in the last couple of years in challenge matches and they’ve been ultra-competitive games. They’ll be asking different questions of us. They have a lot of speed within their team so I’m sure they’ll be running a lot of ball. Like ourselves, they have a nice blend between the younger lads and some of the older heads. We know a lot of them from college days down in UCC as well. It’s going to be a huge task but it’s one we’re looking forward to.”
Ballygunner versus Sarsfields will be the George Corbett Skoda Big Match on Sunday. Join Kieran O'Connor and Eoin Murphy for live coverage from 1.15.
Listen back to the full interview with Pauric Mahony from Friday's Lár Na Páirce show.
