Richie Hogan, one of the great generation of Kilkenny hurlers, has retired from the intercounty game. Having just turned 35, he had battled chronic injury for a number of years but was still brought into this year’s All-Ireland final against Limerick for the closing minutes.
Kilkenny GAA posted this response, thanking the player for his contribution.
“On behalf of Derek Lyng and his management team and Kilkenny county board, we wish Richie the very best in his retirement from intercounty hurling. Richie’s contribution to Kilkenny hurling cannot be measured and his achievements and service to Kilkenny GAA speak for themselves.
“He has inspired so many over the years both on and off the pitch. Thank you Richie!”
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Winner of a litany of glittering prizes, seven All-Ireland medals, the Hurler of the Year accolade in 2014, four All Stars, five NHL titles and an extraordinary 12 Leinster championships, Hogan’s career began in a welter of expectation given his under-age record and even his familial ties – second cousin to DJ Carey.
At St Kieran’s College, he played on all three school teams, juvenile, junior and senior in the one year.
Short in height but prodigiously gifted, he was used to being both the smallest and best player on his early teams as a prototype corner forward. Against Galway in a losing minor All-Ireland, he shot the equalising point but Kilkenny lost the replay. Two years later he scored the late goal that took Tipperary to a replay in the Under-21 final and a replay that this time, they won.
He added a second Under-21 medal in 2008 by which stage he had already picked up two senior medals, the first a year previously, which he later described as the ‘handiest All-Ireland medal anyone could get,’ having been added to the panel on the week of the final.
In a 2015 interview in this newspaper with Malachy Clerkin, he spoke about the pressure of such high expectation levels.
“I wouldn’t have found that a problem at minor or even playing Under-21. You just go out and do what you’re there to do and you feel that this is within your reach. You feel like you should be able for this.
“But as an 18-year-old going in with the seniors, it’s a different thing. You’re going in there and you’re looking across the dressingroom at Shefflin and JJ (Delaney) and Tommy (Walsh) and because they were playing senior when you were only 12 or 13, you automatically think that they’re from a completely different generation.
“You go from being the best player on all the teams you’ve played with up to that point to automatically going straight down to the bottom of the food chain. I found that hard. No matter what team I played on before then, I was always nearly considered the best on it.
“So to be in among those lads, I found it difficult. Not so much the playing side of it, more the not playing. Like, I found it hard because there were so many ahead of me. I was pissed off, to be honest.”
He began to make his own imprint from 2009 when playing a leading role in an epic league final victory over Tipperary and starting the following September when Kilkenny recorded the four-in-a-row after again beating Tipp.
Although he was back on the bench the following year when Tipperary got revenge by stalling what would have been the GAA’s first five-in-a-row, Hogan’s time was at hand and in 2011, he scored a goal in the final and earned his first All Star.
The team was beginning to age but as players like Henry Shefflin, Tommy Walsh and JJ Delaney called time on their careers, he and TJ Reid kept the show on the road, as four All-Irelands in five years were won.
In 2014, his switch to centre forward was pivotal in Kilkenny’s holding Tipperary to a draw before winning the replay. Hogan would end the season as a consensus Hurler of the Year.
“The latter few years of injury-blighted struggles shouldn’t overshadow his great quality as a hurler,” according to Irish Times hurling analyst Nicky English. “He was a serious, serious player with such innate close control that he could take scores in only fractions of space. He was one of the players you’d travel to watch, outstanding.
“His display against Tipp in the drawn 2014 All-Ireland helped to redefine how centre-forward play was viewed. Traditionally it had been a very physical focal point of attack and you couldn’t imagine someone like Tony O’Sullivan going in there during a match in the 80s.
“But Richie was comfortable in the eye of the attack, finding space and using his ability to create – to be a playmaker, like Tony Kelly had been with Clare the previous year.”
Injuries took hold later in the decade and into the 2020s with back issues among other problems preventing him from ever really playing a sustained role with the county and when he did start the 2019 All-Ireland he received a red card for a head-high tackle on Tipperary’s Cathal Barrett, which he vehemently disputed as “a completely honest challenge”.
In the years that followed, he was still a remarkable contributor off the bench, his eye-catching goal in the 2020 Leinster final turning the contest in Kilkenny’s favour.
“Very few players that I have seen could actually have done that,” says English. “It was one of a catalogue of special scores.
“He also deserves huge credit for trying and trying to get back. What he put himself through to get back hurling demonstrated immense character. Spending that amount of time on the treatment table showed the extent of his commitment to hurling and Kilkenny. It shouldn’t be forgotten even though the happier focus is on what a talented and resourceful player he was.”
Richie Hogan’s statement of retirement in full:
“Thank you! For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a Kilkenny hurler. I cannot recall a day in my life where I haven’t thought about what I need to do to get to the highest level of the sport or what I need to do to stay up there. Listening to stories from my grandfather about Kilkenny heroes of the past and watching endless hours of games on repeat from Kilkenny teams in the 90s allowed me to dream.
“Going to games with my brother Paddy to see my father and my uncle Richie playing for their clubs filled me with the inspiration I needed to practise everyday and make that dream a reality. I always believed I was born to play hurling and from the first day I represented Kilkenny as a 12 year old I felt like the black and amber colours were woven into my skin. Now that my playing days are over I look forward to wearing those famous colours as a supporter again.
“I can honestly say that apart from the obvious exceptions in life, nothing has given me more joy and nothing has caused me more heartache than playing hurling. Winning seven All Irelands in the first nine years of my senior hurling career was amazing and I will never forget those times or the incredible team-mates that I played alongside. The last couple of years have been hugely challenging physically and mentally but I’ve developed characteristics during that time that will benefit me for the rest of my life.
“Thank you to the incredible team-mates I have played with over the past 17 years for Kilkenny and 20 years for Danesfort. Playing with you, while sometimes winning and sometimes not, was an incredible honour which I have always appreciated.
“Thank you to our manager Derek Lyng, the Kilkenny back room team and especially to the medical teams without whom I would never have made it to the field on so many occasions. Thank you to the Kilkenny county board, our sponsors Glanbia and to Michael and the Lyng family in MLM.
“Thank you to the GPA for its incredible education and professional support as well as all of the employers I have worked for over my career who accommodated my sporting commitments and always recognised the value of gaining skills on the field and implementing these in the workplace.
“Thank you to my wife Anne, my parents Sean and Liz, my brother Paddy, sisters Rachel and Niamh, my grandparents Eileen, Mick, Bee and Patsy and my wider family. Thank you to my former teachers and every GAA volunteer in my club.
“To the people of Kilkenny, thank you for everything. I always think of how lucky I was to be born into a county where my obsession with hurling was equally matched by everyone in our great city. I am incredibly grateful for the support you have given me through both good and challenging times on the pitch. My body has tried to call time on my career many times over the past few years but my mind always convinced me that the call to represent you was always greater.
“For now however, don’t call me, I’ll call you.”
