Lee Chin says players relish the time off which comes with the GAA's split season

The GAA's decision in February 2021 to enshrine the 'split season' into the calendar has been the focus of much debate in recent weeks.

Some have bemoaned the intercounty season ending in July, with the remainder of the year handed over to the club game.

But Wexford hurler Lee Chin is adamant that players benefit from time off at the end of the year, which is enabled by the split season.

"We as players and athletes definitely value it [time off]," he said.

"I know how valuable the next couple of months will be to me.

"But you've got to be disciplined enough to try and be fair to yourself, and once you step out of the bubble sometimes, it's nice to see a different part of life, have a few different experiences and have that bit of balance and enjoy yourself.

"If you can manage to let your hair down a little bit as well in that space of time, it will serve you well in the latter end of the year.

"From my own point of view, having that time off could sometimes give you a reassessment of where you want to go or what you want to do. It brings that hunger in you as well to get back into things.

"I know it will serve me well and I'm looking forward to having a bit of time to myself."

And he has gained that perspective through experience.

"Hurling and GAA has gone to a level where you have to be massively involved and invested. You need to balance it out though, that's one thing young lads have to understand," he added.

"It can't just be all about GAA. I found that out later in my career that once I had a bit of balance, I was in better form and once I was in better form, I was performing better too."

The Model County's county final in the small ball will be one of the earliest anywhere in Ireland in 2022, with the football competition getting under way after the hurling showpiece.

Chin therefore has played his last game of hurling this year, following Faythe Harriers' Wexford SHC quarter-final defeat to Rapparees on Sunday.

"Some lads will be twiddling their thumbs, wondering 'what am I going to do now?' or 'what am I going to do next?'. But at the end of the day, there's a lot of time between now and next year. Lads have time to themselves which you often throughout the GAA season that some people feel they don't have enough time to themselves," Chin said.

"I for one am happy for the next couple of weeks ahead, where I'll see what way I am in terms of my injuries and stuff. Will I play football this year? I'm not quite sure. But it's just something I feel I need to do selfishly for myself, because of the serious injuries I had during the year, to maybe give my body a bit of time to recover before I get back into the season with Wexford next year."

Although Faythe Harriers' club campaign was run off in six games in the space of 33 days, Chin relished the hectic schedule.

"It was very demanding. When you think back to your childhood days, all you want to do is play games. And as you become an adult, that doesn't really change," he said.

"It was a process in which management within the club scene in Wexford tried to balance out, what could we get done during the week that would be of value to us at the weekend.

"When you're in that period of condensed games, it's about balance and it's about not pushing too hard during the week.

"During the week for us back at the club, we basically played at the weekend, went to the beach the following day, recovered, had a bit of fun on the beach and then on the Thursday night we'd get together, train for a half hour and we'd play at the weekend. Although it was a demanding period in terms of games, it wasn't overly physically a killer during the week. We tried to balance it out during the week, put it that way."