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19th July 2018
03:59pm BST

The five of those lads have been living together for a couple of years now but this is the first time their championship interests have been ended before the dawn of August.
Four of the lads are teachers so they moved back home for the summer prior to the beginning of the real business, but Matthew O'Hanlon won't forget in a hurry all the treks home he made down through the years during the winter months for training in the sunny south east.
"From a stress point of view, you're training in Wexford, you're training of a Tuesday and a Thursday. You're there on Monday evening going, 'okay I've to get my gear ready because I've to be out the door at half 7 or eight in the morning," he said on Wednesday's GAA Hour Hurling Show.One of the toughest parts, and all of the soldiers in a similar position will agree on this, is the struggle to get the right foods in, rather than eating on the go. You have to prepare a lot for that one.
"I've to have my lunch ready for the way down to training, and also, you've to have your lunch ready for the next day because you're not going to be back up until half eleven or that. "Then you've to get back up and repeat. You're trying to prepare two or three days in advance," he said.That wasn't the reason the Wexford joint captain took a career break from his job during this year's championship, but he certainly found the lifestyle a lot easier with more time on his hands.
"It allowed me to get to see the physio if I had any knocks, get a bit of rehab in, down to the sea as much as I could, get an extra gym or hurling session in if I could. I'd arrive to training a little bit earlier and it allowed me to get a few bits in that I wouldn't get to do when I was wrestling with the N11 and M50 to get down to training on time."Seeing as the Wexford hurlers played for four weeks in a row, the time off work was ideal for O'Hanlon - time he took because in order to continue in his job, he would have been forced to move abroad for the year.
"Having been in Dublin for 7/8 years, up and down that N11, I said I'd give it another go," he reasoned.With Wexford knocked out by Clare last weekend, his focus is fully on his club's St James's now and their progress in the county championships. Time is money for GAA players and the county boys are never left with too much on their hands. You can listen to Conal Keaney and Matthew O'Hanlon on their seasons, and their tips for the closing stages of the championship here.
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