The hurling legend lives on

We’ll be there in Croker tomorrow, like Cork, back for the first time in a while, but you can hardly say he’s new to the place.

Leave aside the four All-Irelands he won across the grades in both codes there: the anniversaries this month alone indicate just how special a place it was for him and how special a talent he was. It’s 25 years ago this week he played an All-Ireland MHC final aged only 15; 21 years since he was Cork’s best player in the senior final against Kilkenny which, while not enough to win an All-Ireland, was enough for him to become the youngest Hurler of the Year ever; 20 years since he played a senior football final there against Derry.

He’s also mindful that it’s 10 years almost to the day that he was there when Cork played Kilkenny in another September showdown. He didn’t play that time, just as he hadn’t for club or county in over two years, an arrangement he was comfortable with, sitting above in the upper Hogan. But when he popped into see the team that evening in the Citywest and saw their hurt and resolve to go one better the following year, something stirred in him. Within three days he’d suggest to his wife Elaine about coming out of retirement and within three years he’d played in another three All-Ireland finals, winning two.