TJ Brennan on leaked Clarinbridge charter - 'I think it was just to scare lads, really!'

At the dawn of the college hurling season, Galway's TJ Brennan is chasing a third successive Fitzgibbon title with UL, though it was recent headlines on the club front which hogged the agenda briefly this week.

Brennan's Clarinbridge went viral late in 2023 after a fearsome 'Players' Charter' was leaked on social media.

The charter, among other things, banned players from taking holidays past June, imposed a five-month alcohol ban during the club championship [unless approved by management and the 'leadership group] and outlawed soccer, rugby and, most bizarrely, golf from June onwards.

The public were shocked and bemused at the zealous list of restrictions and while the club itself was not initially named, it quickly emerged via a series of unsubtle hints that the 2010-11 All-Ireland champions were the relevant party.

A Clarinbridge official later told the Sunday Independent that the charter had been 'player led' and clarified a couple of details ["we weren't banning golf, it was more about lads not missing training because they've played 18 holes of golf"].

Brennan, a key player for the club and now entering his fifth year on the Galway senior panel, said it came across more starkly on the page than was intended in spirit.

"I didn't think it would get out at all in the first place and then when it did, I was shocked to see how far it went," Brennan told RTÉ Sport.

He insists the charter itself probably should be seen in the context of a disappointing season. Clarinbridge, a dominant force in the minor ranks in Galway in the late 2010s, have failed to topple St Thomas' at senior level and were dumped out the 2023 championship at the quarter-final stage by Loughrea.

"There probably would be a bit more give and take to be fair,"