The Allianz Hurling League is upon us once more this weekend, and the task at hand for Kilkenny appears a simple one: go one better than last year.
Of course, that is easier said than done. In both the 2023 league and All-Ireland finals, the Cats were ultimately beaten soundly by Limerick, who have ruthlessly asserted their dominance over the inter-county game in recent years.
Kilkenny have had an unusual facet to call upon during their preparations for the 2024 season.
For the first time since March 2018, an All-Ireland club hurling final took place without the involvement of Kilkenny titans Ballyhale Shamrocks. Of course, Ballyhale were toppled in their county championship by O'Loughlin Gaels, who went on to lose in agonising fashion to St. Thomas' in a riveting Croke Park final.
Richie Reid is among the cohort of Ballyhale representatives among the Kilkenny panel returning for 2024. Speaking to Balls.ie at the launch of the Allianz Hurling League on Wednesday, he said that the unfamiliar experience of pre-season inter-county preparation could well turn out to be a positive as he pushes for a maiden All-Star this season.
READ HERE: Kerry GAA Legends To Face Kingdom Soccer Legends In Charity Match
READ HERE: Tyrone Joint-Manager Thanks NFL For Passing On Niall Morgan
Kilkenny GAA: Richie Reid gunning for All-Star in 2024
Launch of the 2024 Allianz Hurling Leagues 31/1/2024. Pictured are players from last year’s Allianz Football Division 1A Final, Limerick hurler, Diarmaid Byrnes, and Kilkenny hurler, Richie Reid at the launch of the 2024 Allianz Hurling League. The Allianz Hurling League provides an opportunity for all players to claim their spot in the county panel for the season ahead. The return of inter-county action, after a five-month break, also affords the teams competing a chance to showcase their strengths and lay down a marker to their county rivals. Photo: INPHO/Dan Sheridan
A stalwart of the Kilkenny panel for the past decade, it is only in recent years that Richie Reid has joined his brother TJ as a core member of the starting 15 for the Cats.
Captain in 2022, when Kilkenny were again on the losing side of an All-Ireland final against Limerick, pre-season training with Kilkenny is an unfamiliar experience for Reid. Barring the COVID-truncated seasons of 2021 and 2022, each year since 2018 has seen Reid and his Ballyhale Shamrock teammates tied up with club duties before being thrown straight in to the middle of a league campaign.
Speaking to Balls.ie on Wednesday, Reid said he could feel the added freshness in his legs in having a few weeks of inter-county training under his belt, and said that he hoped to see the positive impacts pay off over the coming season:
It has been different, it has been four or five years. It has been our first pre-season that we have got.
We got two and a half weeks, then we got back into it with Derek [Lyng], you're probably dreading it going back, seeing as it is so long since you had a pre-season.
Once you get the first session in, you are looking forward to the next session. We had sessions then up until the Christmas and we had a break over the Christmas for one or two weeks. It has been really good.
For the past few years it was continuous with the club at this time of the year. You are picking up that pace to get back into the county level then.
There was a bit of [added] freshness. Obviously, when you're with the club you are playing a competition, you're playing for a Leinster Final or a club All-Ireland. This time we are coming in, getting one or two months to get a good slog of hard training in, which the body probably hasn't got in the last numbers of years.
The absence of club hurling deep into the winter was not the only thing which made the 2023-24 off-season unique for Richie Reid. The centre-back married long-term partner Sabrina Cantwell in late December, making Christmas 2023 an especially memorable one for the Reid family.
View this post on Instagram
The stag do a month earlier had been memorable for an entirely different reason for the Reids, as Richie's brother TJ won a remarkable seventh All-Star.
The Reids were missing from the All-Star banquet due to Richie's stag in Cheltenham, alongside a strong cohort of Ballyhale teammates (including another All-Star winner Eoin Cody).
Richie says that, though he was over the moon for his teammates to be rewarded for their efforts in 2023, he is equally driven to ensure he joins them on the All-Star team in 2024:
Yeah, there was...the stag was great craic. We obviously had TJ and Eoin Cody being named as All-Stars, so it was great to have them with me.
The boys, TJ and Eoin, they sort of took the attention off me with the All-Star! It was great craic over in Cheltenham, I think there was 40 of us over there. We had a great day at the races. It was remarkable to have the All-Stars in as well - they enjoyed it as much as I enjoyed it over there!
I certainly do [want to push on to an All-Star]. The first year that I was playing centre-back, I got nominated for an All-Star there. It was probably a driving force to get one last year, and I missed out on the Leinster final through injury.
So, the individual drive will be massive for Richie Reid in 2024.
Despite the massive change brought about by Brian Cody's departure as manager, Kilkenny still managed to excel in reaching all three major finals last year. They won in dramatic fashion against Galway in Leinster, but Limerick once again stood in their way in the league and championship.
Reid admits there may be some element of revenge about Kilkenny's quest for All-Ireland glory in 2024, given the back-to-back final defeats to Limerick, but is under no illusions that the desire to stop the Treaty County's prospective five-in-a-row is one shared by every major contender for Liam MacCarthy:
It is a driving force, to get an All-Star, it's always nice to do. But, look, you're thinking of the team, and the one you really want is the All-Ireland.
There certainly is a drive to beat Limerick. Looking back, the last two years, we have hurt there, losing the last two All-Irelands. The team that we've played has been Limerick, and they're going for the remarkable five-in-a-row this year.
They're an incredible team, but we have the league coming up this week. We just want to take it competition by competition. All the teams in the country want to get to that All-Ireland final stage, so we're just hoping we can go one step further this year.
There's a lot of work to be done, but we're looking forward to the year.
Kilkenny get their Allianz League campaign underway at Nowlan Park against Wexford on Sunday afternoon. Throw-in is at 13:45.
SEE ALSO: Home Of Cork GAA To Be Renamed SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh
