Former Wexford hurler opens up about pain after being substituted in his final game

A former Wexford Senior hurler was on this week’s Wexford Hurling Podcast…

Former Wexford Senior hurler, Eoin Quigley, was the most recent guest on the Wexford Hurling Podcast.

One of the first things that he discussed with hosts Ben Bernie and Garry Doran was his last ever game with the Wexford Senior hurling team and how he knew – at that moment – it was time to retire.

Quigley started the game in the half-forward line, but with two minutes to go before half-time, manager Liam Dunne decided to substitute him off:

“I got taken off with 33 minutes gone in an All-Ireland quarter-final against Clare in my last year under Liam Dunne. And I never felt pain like that. I had to walk across the pitch with 40,000 people there. To be taken off with two minutes to go until half-time on my final game for Wexford. I don’t hold that against Liam Dunne, but as a manager, it’s a very hard thing to do someone. You could just say there’s just two minutes to go. You take your chances. I was a forward too, so it wasn’t as if I was going bad as a back. And actually I thought I was going alright. But anyway, he whipped me…It’s hard to be taken off in a dressing room, but I remember being taken off with two minutes to go across the pitch to the full stand That was a tough way to go. Sport isn’t always fairy-tales – and you don’t always end on a great thing,” Quigley said.

“There was other lads in the forward line going terrible. Liam kind of said ‘look it, you might come back on’ – and I kind of told him, I wasn’t – you won’t see me again. I remember in the dressing room afterwards that was it then – and I was upset over it. But you can’t change it you know, it’s just the way it is,” Quigley said.

On the podcast, Eoin Quigley did point out that he still has a good relationship with Liam Dunne, that managers have to make tough decisions, and noted that they did shake hands a couple of months later at his mother’s house in Clonard.

Quigley now acts in a coaching capacity with his club, Sarsfields, in Cork, who lost out in this year’s All-Ireland hurling final.

The full podcast with Eoin Quigley can be listened to below: