Shefflin on the verge of medal history

When Henry Shefflin steps once again into the Croke Park arena on Sunday he does so in the sure knowledge that he is on the edge of history.

If Kilkenny win, Shefflin will have secured a record-breaking ninth medal on the field of play and will shatter a record that has stood for almost 60 years.

The inestimable Shefflin, noted for his iron-clad focus before games, is naturally completely aware of the record but has banished it to the deepest recesses of his mind hoping that when the dust settles sometime after 5pm he will have secured his place in history.

Gaining the ninth medal has been attempted before on a few occasions but dashed.

Previously a clutch of Kilkenny men who were part of their first golden era from 1904-’13 had seven medals in that time. Ring had four medals by the age of 24 and added four more in the remainder of his long, long career. The last of those is an epic with Wexford in 1954.

Many thought he would retire but carried on and was in another final with Cork in 1956 when they again faced the Slaneysiders. This game hinged on a fantastic save by Wexford keeper Art Foley from Ring in the dying moments when the Corkman ran in and famously shook his hand.

Though the Wexford players carried Ring shoulder high off the field in a remarkable display of sportsmanship and respect, the ninth medal was denied.

John Doyle was another who gathered a number of medals early on in his career. Starting his senior career with Tipperary in 1949 he won three medals in his first three years. But the winning dried up for a while. It wasn’t until the ’60s when he was in his 30s that he won another four in five years (’61, ‘62’,’64 and ’65) in a team that Tipperary consider their greatest.

For a player who was going to retire before he reached 30 but luckily changed his mind, he was now on a roll and by 1965 he had equalled his great rival Ring with eight medals.

In 1966, though Cork surprisingly won the Munster championship and went on to the All-Ireland final, the Cork selectors were seriously considering picking Ring that year (even though it was his 46th!) as he was still a major force in club hurling though he had retired from the inter-county scene three years earlier.

But despite much speculation and some communication from the selectors, Ring did not play and so his chance of the ninth medal had finally passed.

Doyle had one more kick in him. In 1967 Tipperary again reached the final and were odds on favourites. Much of this was based on the fact their opponents Kilkenny had not bested them in a final since 1922. This was an era when the saying went “Kilkenny for the hurlers, Tipperary for the men”.

But fate decreed that Doyle would not win the elusive ninth medal when Tipperary were surprisingly beaten on a scoreline of 3-8 to 2-7.

Doyle subsequently retired from the inter-county game and so his chance of a ninth went with it.

And with Eddie Brennan securing his eighth medal last year and subsequently retiring, the only man who can do it now is the mercurial Shefflin.

So will Henry break the glass ceiling? His career has certainly been stellar from the start. A senior at 20 he lost his first final. But the graph has been climbing relentlessly since then.

History suggests, like his esteemed predecessors, that in the end the fates will conspire against him. But with the tidal wave that is Kilkenny, primed for action, who would bet against the record being smashed?

And no better a hurler to smash it, if it is to go.