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Tough season: Cork's John Gardiner. INPHO/Cathal Noonan
Rebel Yell

'It's been a tough year, personally' admits Cork stalwart John Gardiner

‘Jimmy will have a debriefing in the next couple of weeks. We’ll sit down and discuss it. There’ll be no decisions made in the wake of the game, we’ll just see how the conversations go.’

CORK HURLING STAR John Gardiner has admitted his frustration after a season in which he played the role of a squad player for the Rebels.

It’s a position with which the Na Piarsaigh’s clubman is unfamiliar, having played a central role with the Leesiders since his breakthrough in the early 2000s.

“On a personal level it has been a very difficult year not to get as much game time as I would have done in previous seasons,” said Gardiner at Croke Park yesterday.

“Going from being on the team to just being on the panel, not seeing as much game time was frustrating. From a team point of view, people would say there was progress this year; we got a couple of nice victories under our belt. The experience of Croke Park will stand to a lot of the young guys on the panel.

“We were in that [Galway] game for long periods and as you say there was a couple of chances if we took them who knows what would have happened may have been a better result but over the course Galway were probably a better team. When they got their lead they held onto it.”

In the wake of that All-Ireland SHC semi-final defeat, Jimmy Barry-Murphy’s side will reflect on a season in which they reached a league decider and the last four of the championship. Not bad going for the proverbial team in transition, but Gardiner admits he faces personal decisions over the winter.

“Yeah, it was tough,” he said, of sitting on the bench for long periods. “I was never in that situation before. I came onto the panel in 2002, just  coming out of minor, parachuted straight onto the team. Every time I was fit I started on the team so this year was very different for me and at the start it was very difficult.

“I had to sit down and take stock. There were two ways to take it. I decided to be just positive about it. We’ve a different group of players now, a lot of them are very young and I just tried to help them along. Tried to give myself every chance if I was called to do myself justice. I think I did  that. I was right for the games, the opportunity just didn’t come up.

“I still think I have something to offer. I feel the body, like I’m 29 years of age and feel in as good a shape as I’ve ever been. From that point of view I don’t think there is any question. Jimmy will have a debriefing in the next couple of weeks. We’ll sit down and discuss it. There’ll be no decisions made in the wake of the game, we’ll just see how the conversations go.

“The body will be able and I feel I still have something to offer,” he continued. “You can only judge yourself on how you go in championship games to be fair. You make your name in championship hurling so it is difficult to assess the year. I didn’t get enough game time in the championship to see where I was at. I think I am going as well as I was. I don’t think there is any change in my form. I look forward to it and I still have the appetite to it so I was just disappointed I didn’t get enough game time, as I said.”

Gardiner was speaking yesterday in Croke Park at the launch of Ulster Bank GAA Force is an initiative which supports local GAA clubs across the country by offering them the chance to win support packages to refurbish and upgrade their facilities. The overall winner will receive a package worth €25,000, with four runners up (one from each province) receiving € 5,000 each. Ulster Bank, Official Sponsor of the GAA Football All-Ireland Championship, is now calling on clubs to register for this year’s competition on www.ulsterbank.com/gaa.

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