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Eamon Fitzmaurice with Paul Galvin during a league game last year. INPHO/James Crombie
Walking Away

Kerry boss Eamon Fitzmaurice reveals why Paul Galvin has retired

It was announced tonight that the 34 year-old has called it a day.

KERRY MANAGER EAMONN Fitzmaurice has revealed tonight why Paul Galvin has retired from inter-county GAA.

Fitzmaurice confirmed the news in Croke Park in the post-match press conference tonight after Kerry lost to Dublin in their Division 1 league clash.

The Kerry boss, who is a brother-in-law of Galvin’s, outlined that the 2009 Footballer of the Year found it too difficult to commit as he is now based in Dublin and also attributed his retirement to injury issues.

Galvin had been named as number 17 on the Kerry substitutes list for tonight’s clash but it was announced before the game that he would not be part of the panel with Marcus Mangan taking his place.

“Paul is finishing up”, revealed Fitzmaurice. “He considered it through the autumn. I persuaded him to give it a go, not to have any regrets basically. To have a look at it and see if it was manageable and it just proved that it wasn’t.

“It’s a decision he took a lot of time over, we met a couple of times during the week to chat it out and I think at the end of the day it’s the right decision for him. Logistically, his life is in Dublin now and trying to split your time as an inter-county footballer between Dublin and Kerry, was going to be difficult.

“There’s no regrets on Paul’s part and there’s certainly no regrets on my part. He had a look a it, he tried it out for the five or six weeks and it was just proving too difficult really.

Galvin had featured twice for Kerry recently in the McGrath Cup competition and his substitute appearance against Cork transpired to be his last for the Kingdom. Fitzmaurice was convinced that the 34 year-old was still capable of impacting at inter-county level.

“Definitely. I think he could have done a couple of jobs for us. We were looking at him in the half-back line. I think he could have done his old job in the half-forward line.

“The way he played the game for a lot of years, he took a lot of knocks. His body, he minds it very well, he lives like a monk. At the same time, it just required a lot of taking care of.”

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Pic: INPHO/James Crombie

Fitzmaurice paid tribute to Galvin’s achievements during his career.

“In fairness to Paul he’s always been very, very committed to the cause, club and county. He’ll still play a bit of club football with Finuge I’m sure. He’s a very whole hearted guy.

“His highlights reel, there’ll be plenty of highs and plenty of lows. There were certainly no half measures with him anyway. He had a fantastic career. He broke into the team in 2004 as akind of a hard-working wing-forward. He had a ferocious appetite for improvement.

“He kept improving himself and he developed himself into a player, he became Footballer of the Year by 2009. He’s a great guy, he’s a good friend of mine. He’s a lot of very admirable characteristics, he’s a very honest person both on and off the field.

“He gave fantastic service to Kerry and he’s given fantastic service to the various clubs as well, with Finuge, with Lixnaw, with Feale Rangers, with UCC. He’s had a great time of it and there’s certainly no regrets.”

Paul Galvin has retired from inter-county GAA

As it happened: Dublin v Kerry, Allianz Division 1 football league

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