"If you want to find it tough, it will be tough," says Ryan Wylie.
The Monaghan footballer is speaking about mixing his job - he's a radiographer in the Mater Hospital - with being an inter-county player.
The 24-year-old had his best season yet in a Monaghan shirt last season. Though, ranking his seasons is not a pursuit to which he gives much time.
"You just have base your week and month on a bit more preparation. That's nearly helping me as well. You know what's ahead of you and you base your training all around it.
"It's grand. I'm sure there's loads of other players around the country with tougher jobs. To be honest, personally, it's grand. I get on with it just fine."
Wylie studied at UCD and now lives in Dublin. He's good friends with Dublin players Paul Mannion and Jack McCaffrey from his college days - he and Mannion went travelling together in recent years.
Two-and-a-half years into working at the Mater - what feels like "a lifetime ago" - Wylie has no plans to leave Dublin anytime soon despite the journey to training in Monaghan.
On an average training evening - Tuesday and Thursday nights with maybe the odd Friday are the usual days - Wylie leaves Dublin at 5:30pm.
You’d be down around maybe 7:15 - 7:30. Depends, hopefully, there wouldn’t be too many accidents, but the odd time there’s an accident on the road and it slows it up and then you’d be back an hour and a half coming back so it’s not the end of the world.
It’s probably an advantage some of the other teams have that they have more home-based players to get more collective sessions in and get their training sessions earlier.
You look at some people and they’re home at nine o’clock and we’re only finishing our training at nine or after it and you’re back into your house around 12 and by the time you get settled down in the bed, you’re wrecked.
But that’s just the way it is and there’s no point complaining about it, it’s not going to change. The road from Monaghan to Dublin is not going to get any shorter!
I’ve been doing it since 2013 so I’m used to it now, it’s part of my week.
The odd evening, Wylie may have to miss training. A strong level of trust with manager Malachy O'Rourke - one which first developed in his early days on the Monaghan panel - means those absences do not affect his standing.
"In fairness, Malachy's very good. He understands. He knows everything that's going on. He'd know that I wouldn't be one to miss it [training] because you're lying up at home. He knows I have a genuine reason. He knows that I'd get the work done. He's very accommodating, in fairness. It helps out that way.
"It initially started out with college exams and I was only in the panel and I only got called in, for example, I was called in after the Division 3 National League final in 2013 and I had college exams and I was only training a couple of weeks. I just went up to him and explained it to him and no problem.
"Malachy knows that education and your work, that’s what you’re going to be doing when football is long gone, so he’d have a good eye for that. He’s a good personal manager, he knows the craic."
The inter-county famine is about to end, giving way to a nine-week feast of Allianz Football League action between the weekend after next and the four divisional finals in Croke Park on March 30/31. The exciting programme features 116 games across the four divisions in a campaign which will mark the 27th year of Allianz’ partnership with the GAA as sponsor of the Allianz Leagues, making it one of the longest-running sponsorships in Irish sport. In attendance at the Allianz Football League 2019 launch in Dublin are, from left, Ryan Wylie of Monaghan, Shane Walsh of Galway and Stephen O'Brien of Kerry.
Picture credit: Sportsfile
