The first time they shared a pitch together wasn’t at Croke Park or Nowlan Park but at Buckley Park, and they weren’t wearing black and amber but black and white. It was a Leinster schools soccer final against Drimnagh Castle CBS and the St Kieran’s College strike force consisted of a red-haired lump of a lad from south Kilkenny and a rail-thin youth, a year older, from town.