Willie John: What is there to fear?

TEN MINUTES into the interview the mood changes.

What has started out as a jovial, laugh-along meeting suddenly takes on a serious note. Willie John Daly is asked how Carrigtwohill will cope with taking on the favourites Cork IT in tomorrow’s Cork SHC final, he straightens up in his chair, fixes me in his sights. “In hurling you never back away from anyone. You take on your man toe to toe. It doesn’t matter who he is or how big a name he is. You take no backward step.”

It’s enough, a reminder that this man has never looked at hurling except as a chance to take on the biggest and the best. That’s exactly what’s expected of the latest generation of Carrigtwohill hurlers in Páirc Ui Chaoimh tomorrow. And he’s in no doubt but that they will deliver that type of performance . It’s a reminder too that the fire that made him a revered name throughout Ireland in the fifties still burns.