I think that's legitimate enough. You can definitely have very good years at 30-33. Kilcoyne played the best rugby of his career in 2018-20 at that sort of age; on the other end of the positional scale, Dave Kearney's has played some of his best ever stuff at the same age as a wing.Laighin Break wrote: ↑May 20th, 2021, 11:29 am And Donal Lenihan saying that at 30 "his best three or four years are ahead of him" is being a bit optimistic!
People having been writing Healy off since he turned 30 (admittedly he has had a much heavier career).
I think Cronin is quite a loss for Munster. He's been in the matchday squad at loosehead, either starting or coming off the bench, for eight seasons. Loosehead is probably the most rotated position on the team, you always need at least two good options. There's a lot of wear and tear.
He's also the youngest of the Munster 'Gang of Four' props [Archer, Ryan, Kilcoyne and Cronin] who have been in situ for a decade and who all have massive appearance numbers for the side. You would have thought that keeping him in the mix would be almost a priority, as those lads are all 2+ years older than him and getting towards the extremes of playing age.
My feeling is that anything you get from a player after they turn 34 is a complete bonus. Players tend to get more injured and very much less effective as they hit that age – for example, Alby Mathewson has fallen off a cliff recently. Archer turned 33 at the start of the year, Ryan will turn 33 in summer and Kilcoyne will turn 33 in winter; those lads are getting towards the end of their respective careers. As Ronk said above, there'll be nothing left to build on soon enough.
