I thought of retiring, my wife said I was a disgrace in the match

LOVE ISLAND GIVES REBELS’ ACE NEW LEASE OF LIFE

JAMES LOUGHREY’S head swam with thoughts of retirement as he left Portlaoise a year and a week ago.

Cork’s Super 8s aspirations had just been laughed out of O’moore Park after a humiliating 16-point drubbing at the hands of Tyrone.

But now? Now, he’s watching Love Island to keep up with the young lads who have given the squad a new lease of life.

And he can’t wait to take on the might of Dublin in Croke Park tonight as the Rebels experience the three-game series for the first time.

Yet 32-year-old Belfast native Loughrey, as part of a defence that had conceded 3-20 to the eventual All-ireland finalists, had wondered if he should soldier on.

“Oh, 100 percent,” he said. “Ah, we let it lie for a while and then Ronan got us together, but I’d say some of the boys were thinking that.

“Personally, Jeez, my wife told me I was a disgrace in the game.

For all of us, it was embarrassing.

“She said that if I left it

I’d regret it, and I would have. You’re a long time retired.

“Then Brian Hurley cornered me at Colm O’neill’s wedding in Spain and he can be quite aggressive! Hurley’s a great guy for speaking honestly and bluntly to you, but it was nice.

“When you look at it now, you think, ‘how lucky are we to be playing here?’. “You’re sitting here looking forward to playing three top teams, training in the sun, you don’t realise how bloody lucky you are.” The sea-change in attitude and in approach didn’t happen overnight. Ronan Mccarthy’s management remained in situ and the panel remained relatively intact.

“It’s mad,” acknowledged Loughrey (left in Antrim days), marvelling at the transformation.

“But it’s not as if someone else has come in, a Jim Mcguinness or one of these guys, to transform the whole place and then you could point to that, it is just our attitude.

“This year, we did come together,” he said. “It wasn’t screw whoever in the papers, they were 100 per cent right. Like, we were playing brutal.

“You look at all the young lads coming out there and their attitude is unreal, to be honest. They’re fresh. They’re buzzing.

“It’s a chance for us to have a result off the top teams. We’ve got three opportunities over the next month to do it.”

TIME TO THINK James Loughrey with his daughter Aoibhe after rout at hands of Tyrone last summer