He reached the pinnacle in 2013 but unfortunately for Darach Honan, he has had to curtail his career at the age of 27.
The Clare inter-county star was part of that famous Banner side which sealed All Ireland glory four years ago in the Davy Fitzgerald era.
But seven years after his Clare debut, injury has taken its toll and forced him to call time on his career.
He joined Ger for a chat and he revealed the extent of the hip injury which made it impossible to continue his career.
He explained that it first flared up in 2011 followed by surgery at the age of just 21 and said that "it was due to over-training".
"I also had a hip set-up mechanically that was going to be that was going to be liable to have these problems as well," he added.
"If I had managed it better, if I was allowed to manage it better, I would still be probably playing hurling."
Honan expanded on that and the issue of over-training and how it impacted him.
"Individualised programmes are so important when you look at the different body types on any team of 30 or 35, there's going to be so many different requirements and it doesn't make sense that everyone should just do the same regardless of what position they're playing, height or make up or anything like that," he said, adding that he "wanted to make the team" which saw him push the boundaries and continued with the training methods and drills assigned.
"If I could go back and say 'no' more often, I would've definitely done that."
Long distance running and "slogging work which I wouldn't have thought would be necessary at all" were among the training methods he points to.
"If I could go back, it would be shorter, sharpers drills and shorter, sharper sprints," he said.
"It definitely wasn't the case that I was playing too many games or playing on too many teams, it was the case that I was training for too long and long sessions and too many intense long sessions."
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