Veteran Mervyn the man for all seasons

IN almost every breakthrough team, regardless of the sport, there’s one guy who’s been there through the years, battling away.

He’s the talented player who has always stood out as the years inexorably passed and that summit remained as distant as ever, but he kept going. And then finally, almost on his last legs, the pinnacle. The triumph.

Charleville’s mercurial wing-forward Mervyn Gammell fulfils that role. Since his debut in 1993 he has won five North Cork titles but failed to add the big one, the county title, falling at the final hurdle in both 2001 and 2007.