Henry Shefflin has confirmed his retirement at Langton's Hotel Kilkenny. He told a large gathering of media and members of the public that his decision had been finally made last weekend watching live coverage of Kilkenny's league match against Clare.
“I was at home watching the Clare match with Deirdre and knew that my time had come,” he said.
In a prepared statement he thanked his wife Deirdre and a number of others, including at his club Ballyhale Shamrocks, Kilkenny manager Brian Cody, county chair Ned Quinn, the GPA and his employers Bank of Ireland.
Shefflin said that it was with “a deep sense of gratitude and personal contentment” that he was ending his inter-county career but that he would continue to play with Ballyhale.
He said that when he had met Kilkenny manager Cody on Friday he hadn’t yet made up his mind.
“No I hadn’t. We’d a few good days in Ballyhale celebrating the great victory we had. I woke up Thursday morning and I realised now I needed to reflect. I spoke to yourselves (the media) on Tuesday and said I was going to see but before when the club campaign was going, I was very much in the bubble.
“But the minute the campaign ended, I think my mind just went, with each passing day I reflected on it, the more I felt more comfortable with it. You have to be selfish, Brian said that to me and I said that myself. Do what’s right for yourself. I feel that this is totally what’s right for myself.”
He said that there was nothing in particular about Kilkenny’s win over Clare that prompted his decision but more a crystallising of a realisation.
“It wasn’t anything about the game itself. I think it’s just the realisation had came. I’d met Brian on Friday. Saturday I was becoming more comfortable with it, I was thinking this is the right thing. Come Sunday then, even though I hadn’t, I was just looking at the match and seeing Kevin Kelly and some of the newer players Jonjo Farrell, and I was saying, I remember when I started. I think it’s time for myself.
“I just felt it was the correct time. My heart was saying I’d love to go back but I think my head had come to terms that now was the correct time. It wasn’t anything specifically, it was just that I was looking in as a supporter more than as ‘that’s my team, I’m going back to it’.”
Kilkenny chair Ned Quinn paid tribute to Shefflin on behalf of the county board.
“I would like to take the opportunity today to acknowledge the role that Henry played within the team. Henry was the essential team player. He was inspirational on the field and he was inspirational in our dressing room.
“I would put forward his display in the 2012 drawn All-Ireland final as his greatest ever. On that day he single-handedly dragged Kilkenny from the abyss of defeat on his own. He went around Croke Park, he encouraged and cajoled his teammates and dragged us to a draw in that game and of course we won the replay comfortably.”
Quinn also acknowledged the role of the player’s club Ballyhale, with whom he won six county championships and three club All-Ireland medals and had this to say about Shefflin’s wife Deirdre.
“Henry himself has said already that really only Deirdre and his family know what it took to stay at the top for 16 years but particularly during the times of injury. I know first-hand that Deirdre has been a tower of strength in Henry’s life and we thank Deirdre for that today.”
Asked about any managerial ambitions, Shefflin said that was going to help out with the club and take it from there.
“It’s very hard to say. I wouldn’t rule anything out. Definitely not. I’m not going to sit here and say ‘yeah, I’m looking at managing.’ Because it’s a very tough job, as we all know.
“I very much want to continue to enjoy hurling with Ballyhale and I want to, I suppose, give something back to the club, for the time being. Then, when you get a bit older and you kinda realise then that the children will be a bit older and a bit more independent, than you could see. Because it’s a very time-consuming thing.”
