Richie Power has revealed how a crippling gambling addiction dogged him throughout his Kilkenny career and that he only confronted it after being axed by Brian Cody.
Power explained that he developed the habit, which “grabbed a hold” of him, as a teenager and he eventually sought help at the end of 2013 having been deemed “surplus to requirements” by the Kilkenny boss.
He later earned a recall and played a key part in the latter stages of the 2014 Championship despite his ongoing knee problems as Kilkenny regained the All-Ireland.
Power made the revelations about his gambling when speaking on BBC Sounds’ The GAA Social podcast.
He explained: "I suppose it started at a relatively young age, around 17 maybe 18.
"It would have been very small at the beginning and then it took a hold of me really.
"It grabbed hold of me, as it does, and it's affected so many other people as well. It affected me throughout my sporting career.
"Being an inter-county player, you have so much free time. At weekends, you're not out socialising. You're trying to maybe fill that void."
Power won eight All-Irelands in total with Kilkenny but said that, behind all of that success, he was in “complete turmoil”.
"It was escapism for me, away from the hurling, away from other problems that were going on in my life, like injuries for example.
"Any time I'd have broken down injured, I'd spiral that way. In my own head thinking, 'You know what, nobody's going to say anything to me, they're going to feel sorry for me, I feel sorry for myself'.
"It just had a huge impact on me personally, both mentally and physically. I was hurling with Kilkenny and all this was going on in the background and you're trying to manifest a life that is perfect and great whereas in the back of it you're in complete turmoil."
The 36-year-old was largely in denial as to his problem but when he was dropped by Cody, he knew he had to confront it.
"I just tried to hide it and continued down that long, lonely, dark road until eventually I couldn't go any further at the end of 2013, that's when I was surplus to requirements within the Kilkenny set-up, and probably rightly so because there was no manager or coach that would want that issue around the set-up."
However, he said that while Cody was aware of his gambling, he wouldn’t have known the full extent of it and that the decision to cut him loose was largely down to “a dip in form and fitness”.
"We (Carrickshock) were beaten in the senior county final that year and I didn't have a good season with my club. I probably didn't have a good year with Kilkenny in 2013 either and with this going on in the background as well."
A meeting organised by his father, Richie Senior, and former Armagh footballer Oisin McConville, a recovered gambling addict who co-hosted that podcast that Power was speaking on, was “the start of the road to recovery”.
“There were bumps along the way but that was where I had to make a decision,” Power admitted.
After getting his career back on track in 2014, Power damaged his knee yet again in January 2015 and the only competitive action he saw for Kilkenny that year was the closing 12 minutes of the All-Ireland final win over Galway. He was forced to retire the following January.
“That was the year from hell for me, being honest. I often said it, we won the All-Ireland in 2015 but I didn’t feel part of that at all.
“In Nowlan Park you come out of the dressing room and you go right to go out onto the pitch and you go left to the gym. I literally spent the whole year going left while the rest of the team went right.
“I’d say the whole year in 2015, I hurled one game. I actually hurled a fundraiser in Cork against Cork, I think it was for Jamie Wall at the time. There was a fundraiser. I hurled that game and that was it with Kilkenny until 12 minutes in the All-Ireland final. So mentally, 2015 was just so draining.”
He added: “In the build-up to the All-Ireland I probably trained twice on the field but I was in a lot of pain afterwards trying to rehab the knee to get it right and for whatever reason Brian picked me on the panel for the All-Ireland.
“I wasn’t expecting it at all because I didn’t participate, hadn’t trained. I came on in the final for around 12/13 minutes I think if I remember correctly.
“The game was still in the melting pot at the time. It wasn’t a case of giving a run out just for the sake of it because obviously Brian doesn’t do sentiment. I suppose that probably showed the faith that he had in me.”
You can listen to the full interview with Richie Power on The GAA Social by clicking here.
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