KERRY star Bernie Breen is well qualified to speak about the dangers of burnout.
At 18 years of age, Breen decided that enough was simply enough and she decided to park ladies’ football for a number of years.
Breen didn’t return to the sport until she was 26 but Kerry have benefited from her freshness in recent seasons, as she has produced a series of dynamic performance from midfield.
The 33-year-old Laune Rangers player said: “I’d been playing since I was 14 on the Kerry senior team.
“There was college, underage, senior, minor, U16, schools, club.
“I was training six or seven days a week and there was a bit of burnout.
“There comes a time when you kind of lose a bit of interest in it and I did to be honest.
“I went to college in Cork, studying hairdressing and to become a beautician, and I didn’t even play college football.”
But Breen, who works as a gym instructor and fitness trainer at Killarney’s Brehon Hotel, started to miss football in her mid-20s and she decided to return.
She said: “I did miss it. I’d still have been friends with the girls I was playing with when I was younger but it took me about two years to get back into the fitness side of things again. After that, I went back to college again, did health and fitness in UL, and that helped me along.
“But the fitness was completely different and the game had changed from when I was younger. I just needed a break at that time and took an extended one.”
And Breen, one of the sport’s finest players, has produced arguably the best form of her career in recent years.
She believes, though, that if she hadn’t taken those years out, she may have retired early rather than finding herself in a position now where she’s still going strong.
She said: “That’s exactly it. I might have stopped when I was 27 or 28, to be honest. In the last two years, I’ve never been as fit.”
On Sunday, the Kingdom travel to Monaghan bidding to secure a spot in the Lidl National League division One semi-finals.
In their previous two away matches, they’ve suffered heavy defeats to Armagh and Dublin and Breen said: “Our travelling isn’t good. We’ll see now on Sunday, we’re away again.
“Monaghan have had three weeks off to regroup and get it together again.
“They could be a completely different team going out next Sunday, compared to previous games.
“We’re not going to take anything for granted going up there.”
