Giant-killer Comerford rattles Rock

HE is a most unlikely slayer of giants, Martin Comerford, but that is what he is.

Disarmingly charming, exceptionally friendly, full of craic, wit and humour, there isn’t a malicious bone in his long, fragile-looking frame, not a hint of badness or madness, of evil or violent intent.

Yet game after game in championship and League for Kilkenny, all this year and last, Martin goes out and tackles Goliaths. In almost every inter-county hurling team worthy of the name, probably the biggest man on the side, certainly the meanest, is the full-back. The challenge for the hurling full-forward is to take that man on, face him down, open the door to goals for yourself, for those around you.

They don’t come any bigger, any meaner, than the man guarding the edge of the Cork square yesterday. He’s only 24 but already Diarmuid O’Sullivan is a bit of a legend, an icon, especially in Cork. Nobody relishes the physical, the confrontation, like the Rock from Cloyne, nobody lifts the Cork crowd in the same way, exploding out of defence, knocking opposing forwards aside like so many skittles. He is old-style, warrior-hurler, a larger-than-life hero playing not a game but girding himself for battle. Diarmuid, “nearly twice the size of me in width,” was what the giant Martin Comerford had to slay yesterday. If he managed it, if he could rattle that rock, Kilkenny would also go a long way to rattling Cork, with Martin’s two flying corner-forwards bound to capitalise on the fragments. So went the wisdom.

He did it, but he also did a whole lot more. Yesterday, on a day when all the shooting stars of Kilkenny were well held, Martin Comerford stepped fully into the limelight and in a low-scoring battle of attrition, ended the afternoon top scorer with 1-4, all from play. He could have done a bit of crowing, would have been forgiven for doing so. But he didn’t. Quite the opposite, in fact.

“Their shooting left them down. They might have left it behind them a bit. But sure we left it behind us in ’99; that’s the way it goes,” he sympathised. “Nine points to three at half-time, Kilkenny ahead, my thoughts were that it should have been ten points to nine, for Cork. Some of John Gardiner’s wides were only inches wide, I felt for him on the day. He’s only young, he’ll bounce back. Sometimes they go over, sometimes they don’t, and we were lucky enough that they went over for us today. We’ll enjoy it anyway, and the best of luck to Cork. It’s hard on them, they had it in their grasp, but after a hard year, we managed to pull it out of the fire in the end. Maybe the hard matches stood to us, I don’t know.”

His consideration for John Gardiner was genuine, generous, as was his summation of his battle with O’Sullivan. “I only marked him once before, that was another great battle, he got the better of me that day but I think it was more 50/50 today,” he reckoned. Even Diarmuid himself would hardly agree with that. He did have a few big clearances in the first half, but the only time the Cork full-back really came into his own was when Kilkenny temporarily had a rush of blood to the head, brought Comerford out to wing-forward, introduced a 19-year-old to the Cork full-back.

O’Sullivan stormed into the game, Cork stormed into the game and by the 20th minute of the second half, had taken the lead, for the first time in the game. Then Kilkenny copped on. “I wasn’t surprised at the switch, it’s been working for us all along, myself and Henry have been switching. But Brian (Cody) knows what he’s doing, and he shifted me back in there.” Within minutes, thanks to Martin, Kilkenny were back in control. First a point, then the killer goal, both, he admits, with an element of luck. “For the point I slipped, the hurley slipped out of my hand, but I think anything I hit today was on target, it was that kind of day. The goal, I remember I was roaring at Henry for the pass but he was telling me afterwards he could only barely hear me. Eventually got it out to me, the shot was half-blocked as I struck, but the deflection might have wrong-footed Donal Óg. Nice to see it going in, nice feeling when it crossed the line. My first champion-ship goal, it was a long time coming.”

He’ll never score one more vital. Pleasing as his own performance obviously was, Martin was also happy for big brother Andy, last year’s captain, whose considerable presence helped to steady a distinctly shaking ship in that final quarter. “Did he run on or wobble on?” he laughed, a crack at the greater bulk of the brother.

“He made a bit of a difference, added strength when it was needed. Credit to Richie Mullally as well, coming back from a serious injury. He hit two vital balls near the end.” Credit most of all, reckoned Martin, to their own colossus at full-back. The exception to the size rule, but not to any other. “Ah Noel Hickey is without doubt the best full-back around. I mark him every night in training and I can’t get a ball off him. We call him the Bull, he’s so tenacious, very fast, great under a high ball for a small man. Without doubt the hardest full-back I’ve ever come across, in club and training, and he proved himself there again today. It was an outstanding performance from Noel on one of the best forwards in the game, Joe Deane.” Now that would be one other really good clash to witness. Martin Comerford on Noel Hickey, both of them in yesterday’s form?