As solid as a tree trunk

The Noel O’Leary you see on the field is not the man you get away from the raging tempest of Championship football. And the Cork defender is working on closing the gap between the perception and the reality. He spoke to Tony Leen.

MODERN commercial imperatives dictate that inter-county players arrive for duty these days with gear bags big enough to accommodate a tidy farm labourer.

Only for such convention, Noel O’Leary would still be using that marvellous scruffy white tubular bag; a compelling zipless and strapless illustration of where the Cork defender is from and what he is.