‘You wouldn’t train a horse the way these players are being trained now’
Kilkenny great Charlie Carter is glad he had his time when he did, because of the increased demands on players in the modern game
I’M feeding the horses…’ Given how his name made headlines over the Christmas Festival at Leopardstown, Charlie Carter’s first response when the call comes in is understandable. The three-time All-Ireland senior hurling winner with Kilkenny, and three time All-Star, can now add winning owner to his list of honours.
That’s what happens when your horse Howyabud is backed in from 40/1 to 25/1 in the Savill’s Maiden Hurdle and streaks home by six lengths, leaving the Willie Mullinstrained favourite Horantzau D’airy in his wake.
It’s 20 years since Carter won the last of his All-Ireland titles, the same season Cork and Kilkenny took part in the National League final and the now infamous socksdown protest was staged by the players – well, for the most part by Cork.
Just months earlier, Carter and his fellow Gowran legend DJ Carey sat in the front row for the GPA’s first emergency general meeting at the Killeshin Hotel in Portlaoise, as the players’ body took its formative steps. Two decades on and there are echoes of the GPA taking on officialdom over the GAA’s charter for 2022 that looks to set a paid limit for player mileage for four collective sessions per week, training and matches included.
I really would have given my left arm to hurl for Kilkenny
There’s been a sense of déjà vu in the speculation of whether the throw-in times of the league fixtures this weekend would be disrupted by a type of player protest, to go with the selfenforced ban on media interviews last weekend.
In the time since he retired, Carter has watched the game grow – and the time commitments grow in tandem. A part of him is happy that he played when he did.
‘It’s after coming on a lot since that first meeting in Portlaoise. The players are better looked after now. I would have hurled for Kilkenny for nothing. I would have given my left arm to hurl for the county. When you’re a young lad growing up, money and expenses didn’t come into it. But I suppose when you get a little bit more established, you realise it is a little taxing on the pocket.
‘We were just looking for what we were entitled to – nothing more than that. We weren’t looking for thousands and thousands or anything.
‘In fairness, there was no problem in Kilkenny. I remember I was hurling a league match one time. I was farming and lambing at home. I rang [board chair] Ned Quinn and said: “I’m under pressure with the lambing”. He said: “Get someone in and the county board will pay for it.” It was only a small thing – maybe only 30 or 40 quid to get someone in for the three hours – but it was a big thing for me. So we never had any major issues in Kilkenny.’
The difference between then and now, he says, is that the inter-county game left room for a life outside hurling. There wasn’t anything like the same 24/7, lifestyle choice being demanded of players.
‘Things have become very commercialised the last 20 years, since my time. The players are putting in a way bigger effort. From the time I started to the time I finished, it had gone ten-fold, the effort we had to put in. From the time I finished to the time now, it’s arguably gone 20fold. It’s gone bananas.
‘I actually don’t know if I’d like to be an inter-county hurler in the modern game, in the modern time. ‘We had a life. I remember I met Brian Whelahan at a funeral years ago. We spoke across the wall at the graveyard after the mass.
‘This was 2007 – we had both retired a few years. We were both saying: “Where has the whole thing gone, even in the few years?” We both agreed that we got the best out of it.
‘We trained hard. But we had a bit of a life outside of the game. And a bit of craic.
‘I’m not in the inner circle. I don’t know if there is any craic now – I’m sure the players generate their own – but from the outside looking in, it just looks very, very, very serious.’
Charlie is still immersed in the game. In the two years he spent coaching with St Martin’s in Kilkenny, the senior team reached two county semi-finals; in the four years he spent with St Martin’s in Wexford, the club won two county finals. Since the start of 2022, he has been involved with Naomh Eoin, in Myshall in Carlow, a handy spin down the road.
What gets him riled up is the idea that the inter-county game has evolved in such a way that the GPA could be fighting with the GAA over a four-sessions-per-week limit, that mileage expenses should be paid for any sessions beyond that.
‘For God’s sake, if you had to do more than four sessions a week I’d tell them to go feck off with themselves. And they talking about burn-out? That seems to be gone out the window with Covid. They’re cramming matches in – and what, players could be asked to train for more than four times a week? I’m scratching my head here.
‘You wouldn’t train a horse the way some of the players have been trained in the past. Man or beast needs time to recover.
‘The way it seems to have gone, the players don’t have lives. They’re robots at the moment. That’s again from the outside looking in. Even on-field hurling, it’s robotic, it’s strategic. There’s nearly no one hurling off the cuff. I love watching Cian Lynch. I know he’s still playing to a system but he still hurls off the cuff a bit.’
Carter sat in the front row at that GPA EGM in 2002 in Portlaoise, the same year the socks-down protest was led by the Cork hurlers in the league final against Kilkenny with Andy Comerford one of the few on Brian Cody’s team to go out in sympathy. ‘Everyone else had them up. The Cork lads had them down. Andy, being a rebel, had his down. With his head up in the air, walking in his own way. Andy was always a bit of a rebel. At the time, Brian Cody had no interest in the GPA. I’d say he saw it as a distraction at a time when Kilkenny were going reasonably well.’
As for the characterisation by Cork goalkeeper Dónal Óg Cusack of Kilkenny as hurling’s answer to the ‘Stepford Wives’?
‘It was brilliant,’ he laughs. ‘Sure it only added fuel to the Kilkenny fire. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion – that was Dónal Óg’s. ‘Kilkenny used that for the next few years.’
Sport and Cheltenham was an escape for many during the past week and he explains how he came to be toasting a winner in black and amber at Leopardstown last Christmas. ‘There was always horses here on the home farm. So I started breeding a few. I usually just breed and sell. That horse didn’t sell at the sales so I had to go down the road of getting h i m trained.
And it worked out well, it was a very happy ending! The horse is sold and actually gone to America.’
The colours Howyabud carried – black and amber silks with white sleeves – enhanced the Kilkenny connection. ‘There’s a story behind that. In 2000, Kilkenny won the AllIreland and Kildare won the Leinster football final. We were in Thailand on the team holiday.
‘We were down in the local one night in Pattaya and who did we run into only the Kildare footballers.
‘Being from Kildare a lot of them had the horseracing interest – Glenn Ryan, Willie McCreery, Brian Lacey, Anthony Rainbow and a couple more. Sure we got talking. After a few gargles we decided we might buy a horse together.
‘Willie, being well known in the racing industry, bought the horse. It was called Phresis. The trainer was Seánie Treacy in Borris. But the horse didn’t work out. Ended up no good. So we sold it.
‘Bought another one, Sea To Sky. And it won a race for us. Eventually sold it. The connection with the colours then, we had to get the colours for the first horse and it ended up being black and amber with white arms, to represent both counties.
‘When the boys were done, I kept the colours.
‘We knew the horse had a good bit of ability. He was second in two bumpers, and a point-to-point. But when you’re going up to Leopardstown at Christmas to take on Willie Mullins, Gordon Elliott, Henry de Bromhead and the likes in a maiden hurdle, these lads are playing with big money.
‘Still, the horse didn’t know what he was coming up against! When I went into the parade ring beforehand, I didn’t look over at the trophy and say: “I’ll be back for you in 10 minutes!”
‘It was a marvellous day. Pity the crowd wasn’t there – I’d say there was only 1,000, with the restrictions. Of a normal Leopardstown at Christmas, where I’d regularly attend, there could be 10,000 in the stand. This time, I nearly had the stand to myself! I’d say there were 20 or 30 in it. But it didn’t bother me.’
So seeing his horse pass the winning post, how did the feeling compare to his playing days?
‘It was probably the best feeling I’ve had since winning the AllIreland.
‘Winning an All-Ireland, there’s very few things going to match that, especially when you win your first one,’ he smiled.
‘To win a race at Leopardstown at Christmas, one of the premier tracks and one you know a lot of other owners would target with good horses, it was a special feeling.’
We were down the local in Pattaya and ran into the Kildare footballers