Doing things the Seán Óg way

THERE’S a right way to do things and a wrong way, and sometimes it seems there’s another way - the Seán Óg way.

It’s the extra-right way, the hyper-correct option, which shouldn’t surprise anybody. After all, a man who trains the morning after handing out a masterclass in an All-Ireland hurling final is clearly capable of anything. So long as it’s done the right way.

We spoke after a Na Piarsaigh training session which illustrated the Seán Óg way. The Cork star arrived late and made it onto the pitch as the rest of the panel finished their warm-up. Ó hAilpín went through his routine, jogging from end line to end line while his club-mates fell in for a mixed match. Fifteen minutes later he was still warming up assiduously, even though his team-mates were pucking around; for a player who’d put down months of disciplined training and ferocious inter-county combat, the temptation to fall in must have been huge, but the warm-up had to be completed, all the way through, before he slipped into the fray. That’s the correct way; the Seán Óg way.