Kilkenny’s hurling colossus leaves a lasting legacy

Mia Hamm is a legend of women’s soccer in the United States. She is retired some ten years but she is still revered Stateside.

One of her favourite sayings was “You can’t just beat a team. You have to leave a lasting impression in their minds so they never want to see you again”. That neatly sums up the effect Henry Shefflin had on various opponents in his intercounty hurling career. He was a colossus.

Quite simply one of the greatest if not the greatest of all time. Not alone had he all the skills, strength and intelligence to make him a great individual talent but he was the quintessential team player bringing colleagues into the game or pulling defenders out of position to allow a fellow forward through a gap for a vital score. Personal glory for him came with team glory. I cannot remember a single example of Shefflin holding onto a ball looking for his own score if a teammate was in a better position. Players of his calibre seldom appear. How could it be otherwise. He was so good that if Kilkenny was ancient Egypt he would have been deified years ago.