Pictured is Kilkenny hurler, Richie Reid, at the launch of the 2024 Allianz Hurling League. The Allianz Hurling League provides an opportunity for all players to claim their spot in the county panel for the season ahead. The return of inter-county action, after a five-month break, also affords the teams competing a chance to showcase their strengths and lay down a marker to their county rivals.
By Cian O’Connell
It has been a different start to the hurling year for Richie Reid, but the Ballyhale Shamrocks clubman is relishing the challenge.
The Allianz Hurling League commences at the weekend with Kilkenny hosting Wexford at UPMC Nowlan Park on Sunday afternoon.
Well used to extended club campaigns with Ballyhale, Reid has embraced the changed scenario which meant he was available for pre-season inter-county training under Kilkenny boss Derek Lyng. “Yeah, it has been different, it has been four or five years, it has been our first pre-season that we have got,” Reid reflects.
Following the Kilkenny SHC Final loss to O’Loughlin Gaels, Ballyhale’s players returned to the black and amber set-up. “We got two and a half weeks, then we got back into it with Derek, you're probably dreading it going back, seeing as it is so long since you had a pre-season,” he adds.
“Once you get the first session in, you are looking forward to the next session. We had sessions then up until the Christmas and we had a break over the Christmas for one or two weeks.
“It has been really good. For the past few years it was continuous with the club at this time of the year. You are picking up that pace to get back into the county level then.”
Kilkenny's Richie Reid in action during the 2023 All-Ireland SHC Final against Limerick at Croke Park. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
Ultimately, Reid has enjoyed the past couple of months. “There was a bit of freshness, obviously, when you're with the club you are playing a competition, you're playing for a Leinster Final or a club All-Ireland,” he explains.
“This time we are coming in, getting one or two months to get a good slog of hard training in, which the body probably hasn't got in the last numbers of years. Certainly, I've enjoyed the last couple of months with the training. It has been good.”
Reid is excited about the upcoming league, considering the final placings will impact on the format of the 2025 competition. “Certainly there will be more of an edge,” Reid responds. “Derek has said to us that we are taking the league very seriously. Throughout the training we were without Tullogher lads and Thomastown lads, so it has been hard training wise.
“You are waiting for those lads to come back. I think we were waiting on 12 lads to come. In the past week we've only got the numbers back, lads are coming in and out of the panel when you have the Fitzgibbon on too.
“So, it has been hard, but we have plenty of numbers in training, and we are just looking forward to the league, to try to get some of the new faces, who have come in, to get a position on the team.”
Lyng’s collaborative approach with the players helped to earn Leinster Championship glory in 2023. Now Kilkenny want to make further progress in the coming weeks and months. “He is putting in things that he wants us to do, he is putting it towards us,” Reid remarks. “Hopefully throughout the league we will try targeting things then.”
