‘It’s all about the next one’ - TJ Reid still hungry for more success with Kilkenny

TJ Reid did not spend the winter contemplating his Kilkenny future, his intention has always been to wear the black and amber in 2023.

These are busy times, but good times. Reid became a dad last year, baby Harper Mary arrived in November, he played a lead role in Ballyhale’s All-Ireland club title in January, all the while running his own business – TJ Reid Health & Fitness.

He’s 35 now, but there was no lure of heading off towards the sunset arm in arm with Brian Cody – though that would have been quite the image! He has won plenty, but that doesn’t mean he doesn’t want more.

“As a sports player, it’s all about the next one. Look, I’ve achieved unbelievable stuff with the club and county, but your mindset can’t be selfish that way,” says Reid, who has been named as the Gaelic Writers’ Association Hurling Personality of the Year for 2022.

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“I’m married, I’ve a newborn baby, I’m very happy, life is good. I’m going into my job smiling every day so there is no reason to decide enough is enough.

“In my life at the moment, I can control the controllables, which is great. And the business is flying. If it was struggling, yes, of course it would be very stressful. But I’m hurling well and I still believe in myself.”

Working in the health and fitness sector, Reid understands the older you get the more important individual training programmes are – because preparation has moved on from a one size fits all model.

“If you let a number define your career, even life in general, you’re playing on a losing battlefield straight away,” adds Reid.

“Obviously monitoring your load is a day-to-day thing now. Sports science is evolving. It is allowing people to perform to their maximum and get a couple of more years out of them.”

Reid has not featured so far in the league for Kilkenny, rehabbing “a few little niggles”’ following the exertions of Ballyhale’s club campaign, and he’s unsure if he will see any action before championship.

“I more than likely won’t feature in the league with the few injuries I have,” he says, though he’s not fully ruling it out yet.

Either way, he will enter the intercounty season with a renewed sense of satisfaction, because Ballyhale’s All-Ireland club success in January ranks right up there for him in terms of achievements during his career.

In particular, their semi-final win over Ballygunner felt like a weight lifted off the entire parish. Ballygunner defeated Ballyhale in the 2022 final, when Harry Ruddle rifled home a last-gasp winning goal.

“One word, I suppose, special. A very special achievement,” he says of the recent All-Ireland success. “To be beaten the year before and have the resilience to come back again and get back to an All-Ireland final, for a small little parish, it doesn’t happen often. But we got back there.

“It was just a sweet one, probably the best victory of my career. It wasn’t just the final, it was the year, it was the semi-final, beating Ballygunner. That was special.

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“Everyone was talking about Ballygunner being the best club team ever. It was a bit disrespectful after what our club has achieved over the last 10 years. Ballygunner beat us in the final a year ago so to get revenge, revenge is sweet when it works out.

“That was probably the biggest game I’ve played in terms of the hype and what’s at stake because we felt as a club, if we lost that game, everything that we’ve done over the last five years would have been tarnished.

“As a player, as management, as a people in Ballyhale, that’s the one that people wanted to win.”