Cork captaincy carrot fails to change Corcoran’s mind

HE won most of the battles he contested during his long and distinguished career in red but not even Brian Corcoran could defeat Father Time.

Yesterday, the 33-year-old called a halt to an unforgettable career with Cork that spanned three decades. In the end, it was work and family commitments that finally convinced him to pull the plug.

“I just didn’t have time for it anymore,” the Erin’s Own man said at the launch of his book, Every Single Ball, at Croke Park yesterday. “Inter-county hurling is a huge commitment. I changed jobs at the start of the year, working in Tipperary which is 70 miles from where I live.

“I didn’t think I would even be able to do it for 2006. It was a struggle. I just about got through it but the job is getting busier and I have a family with three young kids who I want to spend more time with.”

It’s a conclusion he came to a long time ago, he admitted, and even the carrot of the Cork captaincy could not tempt him to reverse his decision.

Last year was hard enough, waking up at 6am and arriving home as late as 11pm at times. Training sessions were missed, his diet suffered and, with the workload in Cashel even greater this year, he was never going to stay on if he couldn’t do himself full justice.

Once Erin’s Own’s involvement in the AIB Club Championship comes to an end so too will his career. The break he makes from a game he illuminated so much for so long will be a clean one. This time, it’s for good.

The thoughts of management don’t fill him with any enthusiasm as of now but, as he learned two years ago, you never say never.

The story of how he eventually returned to the fold is a dog-eared one by now but no less interesting for all that. He spoke again yesterday of how he sat in the upper folds of the rebuilt Croke Park in 2003 as Cork lost the All-Ireland final to Kilkenny.

Though the result grated with him, his place in the stand didn’t. Returning was the last thing on his mind but a visit to CityWest that night sowed the first seeds for the most dramatic comeback in the history of Gaelic games.

“I hadn’t seen a lot of the lads in a while and a lot of the faces had changed as well — guys like John Gardiner and Setanta had come in. The hurt that they were feeling at that stage ... I felt myself then that they would win the All-Ireland in 2004.

“I thought to myself over the next few days ‘could you possibly be involved, could you possibly contribute something?’ It was my own decision and within a week I went back training in the gym for the first time since I retired.”

Though Donal Óg Cusack was his training partner for much of that hard slog, Corcoran kept his head down. It was only when Donal O’Grady made the call some months later that word of the ‘impossible’ began to spread.

“Coming back, a lot of people were saying it wasn’t a good move, that I was taking a chance, but I felt myself that it was right. Had you told me the night I came back that I would win two All-Irelands and a county with the club I would have grabbed it.

“Losing the All-Ireland final this year to Kilkenny was disappointing but I have been very fortunate to be involved the last few years, especially 2004 and 2005. Winning the county championship this year then was the icing on the cake.”

Few Indian summers have been so bright and Corcoran himself has no doubt why that proved to be the case.

“I really didn’t hold a hurley for two and a half years and that’s what really re-ignited the fire. If I had stopped playing inter-county and kept playing with the club, I don’t think I would have ever come back playing for Cork. I probably would have only lasted a year or two. I wasn’t enjoying it and I felt I was going at the right time so I have no regrets about retiring back in 2001.”

The same could be said for 2006.