Paddy Deegan pictured at the announcement of Harvey Norman's two new partnerships - with the GAA as the sponsor of GAA Hawk-Eye and as the first official Statistics sponsor of the Camogie Association.
By John Harrington
Hurling is surely the main topic of conversation in Paddy Deegan’s household.
That’s a safe bet considering his fellow tenants are Kilkenny team-mates Mikey Butler, Fionán Mackessy, and Jordan Molloy.
Living together might sound like an extreme way to forge a team bond, but it’s working well so far for the Kilkenny quartet.
“It suits because it's the same lifestyle, we're all doing the same thing,” says Deegan.
“We'd have a bit of craic and we'd all be into any kind of sport that would be on, the darts, the snooker, soccer on the telly the whole time. And we'd all be doing our own bits as well. It just suits us the way our lifestyles are interlinked.
“It's like anything, when you're in that environment you try to push yourself that bit more as well. You'd be getting tips off other lads in terms of what's working for them or anything like that. It's good.”
In any house of four men in their twenties there’s a very good chance there’s one who doesn’t pull his weight when it comes to cooking and washing the dishes.
Name and shame, Paddy…
“The boys would slag me,” says Deegan with a laugh. “I tend to go home to my mother's a good bit, she's only over the road. Whenever I call in she seems to have the dinner ready for me.
“As for the dishes, the boys will probably say me but I’ll blame Mikey!”
Paddy Deegan of Kilkenny during the Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 4 match between Kilkenny and Dublin at UPMC Nowlan Park in Kilkenny. Photo by Ramsey Cardy/Sportsfile.
You’d imagine his team-mates might forgive him for the occasional kitchen lapse. Deegan is one of the more popular members of the Kilkenny panel because he doesn’t take himself too seriously.
This is a man who gave his pupils in Clara National School a laugh by dressing up as Barbie for Halloween and also once reinvented himself as Nicole Sherzinger for an O’Loughlin Gaels lip sync battle fundraiser.
Deegan sees the value of fun, on the pitch as well as off it, though that can sometimes get him in trouble during breaks in training for spraying balls at the posts from all sorts of angles when most lads are trying to get a bit of water or catch their breath.
“I get in a bit of bother at times over that alright!”, says Deegan. “If a ball is driven over the net there's usually a shout, 'Paddy!', and I have to go trotting after it a few times!
“I just love it, I always did, and I don't think that will ever change. I'll try and hurl as long as I can.
“I'm a primary school teacher and I got involved coaching the young lads in school and I'm trying to teach them that it is an important aspect of playing any sport, to just really enjoy it.
“I think that's probably when you start playing your best, when you're enjoying it. If you're putting pressure on yourself and if you're not enjoying every aspect of it then it's just not going to go your way.”
That’s a lesson that Deegan has learned himself as he’s gone along. His life cycle as an inter-county player is a familiar one in that regard.
When he started out he didn’t think too deeply about it, just had a cut at it as best he could and enjoyed what came, whatever that was.
Paddy Deegan of Kilkenny signs a supporter's match programme after his side's victory in the Leinster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 2 match between Antrim and Kilkenny at Corrigan Park in Belfast. Photo by Thomas Flinkow/Sportsfile
For a time then he felt himself tighten up a bit as he perhaps allowed the game to become a burden rather than a release, but now he feels like he’s very much back in a groove that suits him best.
“I made my debut in 2017 and you could say I was in there for two years prior to that training and trying to make my way onto it. The bones of 10 years in and around that circle.
“I'm 29 now so I'm tipping on. I'm a bit more mature now and I realise that it's not going to last forever.
“I do still think that I've a good few years left in me and I'm probably enjoying it a lot more than when I was a bit younger. There's not as much pressure put on myself by myself, if you get me. I'm just enjoying it a lot more. I'm enjoying my hurling and I'm enjoying being in and around the lads as well.
“When you start off first there's no real pressure on you at all because there's no expectations. You're established then and you're putting that pressure on yourself and you probably feel that people are putting pressure on you from the outside as well which probably isn't the truth.
“I think I'm at the stage where I'm really enjoying it now. The body is good, no injuries at the moment. Touch wood it stays like that.”
As much as he’s enjoying his hurling for hurling’s sake, Deegan is a competitive animal.
He’s won five Leinster titles and one national league, but if he ends his career without a Celtic Cross it will surely always rankle.
“We've come up short the last few years which was disappointing. The All-Ireland semi-final last year and the two All-Irelands previous to that.
“We're not too far away, it's just about getting those few extra percentage points to get us over the line.”
Sunday 25 May
Leinster SHC Round 5
Wexford v Kilkenny, Chadwicks Wexford Park, 2.00pm
