Pat Spillane played in 10 All-Ireland finals in his career, won eight of them and picked up nine All-Stars on the way, making him one of the most decorated footballers ever.
Probably now more known now for his time on The Sunday Game, the Kerry legend was once an all-action wing-forward who could run for days, burn defenders, kick points, and always stand up on the big occasions.
Back in the '80s a cruciate injury would have been deemed as a career-ending injury, but through pure will, determination, and torturous training, Spillane managed to recover from one, and come back just as good as ever.
However, as the decade turned to the '90s, Spillane was the sole survivor of the great Kerry team that won four-in-a-row under Mick O'Dwyer, and eventually he was dropped from the team himself.
Determined to go out on his own terms, the Kerryman trained harder than ever before to make it back, as he explained to Joe Brolly on the latest Free State Podcast.
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When I was dropped from the Kerry team by Mickey Ned O'Sullivan, and I can understand why because you're trying to build a new team and everything with that.
"But everything in my life, I want to leave on my terms. I vowed to come back, and in the last winter I trained 12 times a week.
"I trained 12 times a week, Monday to Saturday, twice a day, and I can say this - at 35 years of age, I was fitter than when I was 25.
"I was driving myself for the last hurrah."
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— Joe Brolly (@JoeBrolly1993) August 8, 2024
The Sunday World columnist got his last hurrah, made it back onto the team, won another Munster title, and when he was asked to come back again in 1992 he was able to say no, and officially leave on his own terms, meaning that his crazy training regime paid off.
Of course, modern players train very hard all year around, and training twice a day wouldn't be out of the ordinary for some of them, but what Spillane was putting his body through, particularly at that age would be crazy by today's standards.
In his autobiography he detailed how he would run over 40 laps of the pitch wearing ankle weights, and work his way up to flat out sprints towards the end.
No resistance bands, cosy home-made gyms, or 'activation warm-ups' that last 30 minutes, this was just old fashioned, ball bursting training, and whatever the science might say against it, you can't argue with results.
