‘There was no one better’ than John Egan

I once asked John Egan, the prince of Gaelic football corner-forwards who died on Saturday night, why he was under-rated by so many as a player.

“Who under-rated me?” he shot back, with that razor sharpness that made him such a feared and pivotal part of the most celebrated GAA team ever. Egan was 59 and the suddenness of his passing is matched by the breadth of the football memories he has left behind.

“I don’t know if he was the best forward I ever saw, but I can say there was no one better than him,” his Kerry coach, Mick O’Dwyer, writes in today’s Irish Examiner.