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Peter Duggan in action for Clare against Cork this season. Laszlo Geczo/INPHO
Heading To Oz

Setback for Clare hurlers as All-Star winning forward to miss 2020 season

Peter Duggan is heading to Australia in November.

CLARE’S SENIOR HURLERS have been dealt a setback before preparations for the 2020 season have even begun with All-Star forward Peter Duggan to miss next year’s championship.

Top scorer in the 2018 championship, Duggan is heading to Australia in November as confirmed by The Clare Echo. His loss will be a considerable one for the Banner who failed to progress from the province this year. He is hopeful the time away will allow him to gain necessary experience to assist in setting up a landscaping business when he does return to Ireland.

“Playing inter-county now there is a lot involved and the thought of being able to step away for a year and learn from experiences. I plan on starting my own business when I come back home in landscaping straight away so being able to build up experience abroad, I’ve done a decent amount of it at home since I finished college in May and I’ve been working away in landscaping since. When I’m away I’ll be able to gain some invaluable experience that I wouldn’t be able to do at home”.

At the end of the 2017 campaign, the Clooney/Quin attacker had contemplated going abroad. He explained that travelling is “something that has always been in my family”.

“My whole family have spent most of their lives travelling, my Mam and Dad lived away for 13 years, my eldest brother James is living in China and was living in South Korea and London beforehand he has been travelling for the past 10 years, Martin that hurls with me in Clooney is living in London eight years, Paul my other brother has been galavanting all around America and he is planning on moving over”.

In May, he completed his studies at LIT in business and sports management. His thesis submitted earlier this year was focused on the increasing demands on inter-county hurlers and the corresponding effect that has on the average retirement age. The three-time All-Ireland U21 medallist maintained the year out will prolong his inter-county career.

“I decided towards the end of this year to do it rather than later. If I do it now and come back I’ll have years left in me hurling, I’ll have it out of my system and I’ll be able to hurl into my thirties but if I leave it off and do it at 29 or 30 by the time I get back it will be too hard to get back into hurling at inter-county standard, my best bet at prolonging my career is by doing it at this age”.

Duggan does not expect further departures from Clare’s 2019 panel. He has met with outgoing manager Donal Moloney to inform him of his plans.

“I’ve met up with Donal and we’re going to still be in contact. Donal has been fantastic, he said the door is always open, I don’t even know what way things will go, you know yourself when people have went travelling but it hasn’t ended up being the way they thought it would be so who knows that might happen with me and I could end up coming home. Donal has been brilliant and he will always support me in whatever decision I make.”

- Originally published at 6am; updated at 9am.

Former Ireland performance analyst and current coaching wizard of OZ Eoin Toolan joins Murray Kinsella and Gavan Casey to predict Ireland’s World Cup, break down every pool, and call the overall winners.


The42 Rugby Weekly / SoundCloud

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