Signing Off

There were a few fellas on the recruitment list back in the winter of 2007. Enda Rice was one of them. He fitted the criteria; active sportsman, good attitude and gaelic football on his CV. He was a regular in the heart of the FC Irlande first team defence as well as being a 'ranked' squash player in Belgium. The fact he was in his mid-thirties was ignored.

Enda balanced all these commitments well and always kept me in the loop regarding his whereabouts. If he wasn’t training with us you could be sure he was training with someone else and he balanced his commitments well. He thought about the game too and countered my sometimes frenzied rants well at times. If I needed one at a tournament I'd navigate towards him and he'd put sense on it.

He married a Belgian girl and their holidays were intertwined with G.A.A. tournaments in recent summers. 'Hiking' would have a pit stop in Munich for football and Saturday nights were often spent at G.A.A. dinners. An unexpected education I'm sure.

He was instrumental at midfield in 2008. Switching the play is something I like banging on about and you'd often find Enda in the pocket ready to receive and change the direction of the play. He'd kick points too and scored an absolute screamer of a goal against Den Hague in November 2008.

Last year it was clear he was overly stretched with all his commitments. He suffered a good bit of injury during the G.A.A. season and that didn't help his cause. Down in Luxembourg in June was the first time there was no place for him on the Championship panel. We had too many players, training well, who had to be rewarded. Despite always looking like he couldn't be ruffled, he was p1ssed off that day. We had a brief exchange in the dressing rooms but he gave me his thoughts in more details early the following week.

He knew the score and was able to look at it objectively, something most of us struggle to do. He said he was fully committed to winning his place back and I knew we needed him going well to succeed later in the year. He missed Munich and he didn't see enough game time in Budapest. In Maastricht he was a key man in the Shield squad that did so well and came so close to achieving the unachievable (others perception) by winning the Shield. His positive attitude never waned despite the season not panning out the way we had both planned.

He also proved a great clubman, even lining out with the hurlers on occasion when the need was there. He'd volunteer to do just about anything from picking up water to driving the bus to whatever else. Totally reliable.

He informed Eoin last week and then let me know a couple of days later. Of course, knowing his situation, I wasn't surprised. Playing G.A.A. is a huge commitment due to the length of the season and all the travel. Also, Enda is in his late thirties and the stop start nature of tournaments play havoc with his body.

He'll leave his share of inspiration with the older crew though. As our bodies ache in mysterious ways, we only need to look at him and see how he has maintained his fitness and been able to continually contribute on the pitch in his sporting endeavours.