Mark Schutte has attributed his hurling skills to his Kilkenny family connections.

Speaking at the launch of the 2015 Dublin championships in Parnell Park yesterday, the bang in-form forward with the German surname revealed how he used to support the Cats as a child.

"My granddad was born in Germany. He moved over to Ireland when he was four or five. He's been here ever since," Schutte is quoted in the Irish Examiner.

"I probably get the hurling from the Kilkenny side of my family. It's a funny enough background alright. My granddad's brother's son is Joey Holden, who is the Kilkenny captain at the minute and Brian Hogan, the former Kilkenny hurler, is one of my granddad's brother's sons so we are somehow related, second or third cousins along the line."

The Cuala dual star has no regrets about his decision to concentrate on hurling after being part of the Dublin football squad in 2011.

"I made the decision at the end of 2012 to go with the hurling," he continued.

"I came from more of a hurling club, my family have all been hurlers and I have relatives as I said in Kilkenny, so I suppose hurling was always my first love.

"Probably the main thing to do in Dublin is go with the football but having my brother (Paul) on the hurling team was also a huge influencing factor on me, a large part of the reason I went with hurling."

Tweet

Most Read Stories