Lyng’s perfect choice

Derek Lyng won six All-Ireland medals and national acclaim in service of Kilkenny. But the path to becoming one of the greatest midfielders of his generation was an arduous one.

CHOICES. Life tends to hinge on the ones that you make. Derek Lyng knows that and it was probably Brian Cody who taught him just how true that is.

In the spring of 2002, a 24-year-old Lyng had just broken onto the Kilkenny team when his professional career prospects also brightened up. He’d been offered a coveted sales rep job that he’d missed out on six months earlier. They had given him a brand new Ford Mondeo, the money was twice what he had been on, while on the company’s three-week induction training course he learned they would also be offering to pay for his hotel for six months.