Longevity is one way to describe a sports career of 18 years and it's particularly apt in the case of former Tipperary dual star Brendan Cummins.
The two-time All-Ireland-winning hurler, who retired two years ago and also enjoyed an inter-county football career between 1993 and 2002, has released a new autobiography called Brendan Cummins – Standing my Ground and he joined Ger on Off The Ball to share the insights he raised in it.
One of the anecdotes the 40-year-old former goalkeeper revealed was that he has kept personal diaries since 1998, explaining how they were of benefit to him and how sports psychology changes his life.
And bringing up a point from his early career, Cummins' drive to succeed was certainly apparent from an early age.
"When I got failure I got really angry with it and looked at myself. There was a point where an under-14 trial that I wasn't picked for the school and I was the only one going home on the bus. I remember going home and having that temper and saying why did that happen? That wasn't your man's fault they didn't pick me, it was my fault for not doing enough," he said, also speaking about how an attitude like that helped him deal with being sensationally dropped in 2007 by Babs Keating.
He also discussed the way he dealt with being dropped: "My over-riding feeling when I was told that was hurt - not because I was dropped but because I wasn't trusted to be told the Tuesday. Now, Gerry Kennedy was obviously told earlier in the week. It was complete mismanagement if he was only told two hours before the match as a young fella he was going to be playing. I hope to God he was told earlier in the week. So, I felt then, I've done all I can to help Tipperary hurling all I can. So, do these people actually think that I won't take the decision in the right spirit. Now, I would have been thick on the Tuesday that I wasn't going to be playing but I'd've also refocused and had more time to work with Gerry, so it's that kind of hurt that you couldn't trust me with this information earlier in the week was the thing that cut me the most when I left that meeting.
"When I left that there were tears in my eyes walking out the front door of The Jockey and the world was spinning and my head was in a haze and I was going 'am I going to wake up in a minute?'"
But discussing how good people around him helped him cope, he added, "it never crossed my mind to run."
Listen to the full interview via the podcast player in which Cummins also reminisces about the time when "grown men were crying" as they reacted to 2010 All-Ireland-winning manager Liam Sheedy's departure.
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