Henry Shefflin tortured me from first day I saw him

The first time I ran into Henry Shefflin was in 1999. Clare played Kilkenny in a challenge in Johnstown and this young fella arrived onto my patch as a second-half sub.

I spent the previous 45 minutes chasing Brian McEvoy around with no great success so when I saw this big, raw lad, with an innocent face and red hair creeping out the side of his helmet, I said to myself, ‘Grand, I’ll put the feet up here now for 25 minutes’.

Then the first ball that dropped between us, he stuck up his paw and caught it. ‘Who’s that cheeky young fella?’ I asked in the dressingroom afterwards. ‘That’s Henry Shefflin,” said Jamesie O’Connor. ‘He’s the new guy they’re all talking about.’ Little did I know? I never marked Shefflin again but he continued to torture me during the nine years I subsequently spent as Clare and Dublin manager.