Shefflin confirms what most already knew — he is the greatest ever

He’s long been touted as the greatest of them all but now, there can be no argument.

Yesterday, Henry Shefflin achieved what no other hurler in the history of the game has. A ninth All-Ireland senior hurling success on the field of play. Nine, too, for Noel Hickey but Henry’s graced the pitch for each and every one of his. It’s a remarkable story in more ways than one.

In the quest to secure a place in GAA history Shefflin had two cruciate knee ligament injuries to contend with, one in each knee, the first in 2007, the other three years later.

Then along came a shoulder injury that ruled him out of the entire league campaign this year. But Shefflin, as Shefflin does, presented himself immaculately for the championship. Kilkenny boss Brian Cody insisted the gifted 33-year-old will return next year. The man himself is just looking forward to some down time. But there was a clear indication from the Ballyhale wizard that there’s fuel left in the tank.

He smiled: “I just want to be able to sit down this winter and not have an operation to look forward to. At my stage of the career you always review and evaluate and stuff like that. I’d love to be back again. Hopefully my body will allow me to do that.”

Shefflin added: “Last year a very sweet victory because of the injury more than anything else. There was major concerns and questions over if I would ever get back there again. I just think this one captures my whole career more than anything else. I would definitely have to say that this one is sweet. As well as that if you’d spoken to me the Monday after the Leinster final, I’d have had serious question marks about myself.

“So to reach this now after the summer, I’d have to say this is definitely the sweetest. As well to win the ninth medal, myself and Noel [Hickey] today, is a special feeling.”

Shefflin might not have voiced it publicly, and he is renowned as the ultimate team player, but the prospect of that ninth medal was a massive motivation.

He revealed: “People have been looking to talk to me about it and they’ve said they’d love to see me win it. I’ll be honest with you, I decided that I was going to say, ‘yeah, that I would love to win it’. There was no point hiding from. Why would you hide from something that’s so special?”

And Kilkenny have done it the hard way, bouncing back from a 10-point Leinster final mauling against Galway to defeat the same opposition after an All-Ireland final replay, the first of its kind since 1959.

Shefflin reflected: “This year as well the whole thing revolved from the loss in the Leinster final to the Limerick match to the Tipperary match to the drawn game. And then having the whole thing of a replay is something I’ve never experienced before. I got to cherish it more and I got to train for another three weeks in the build up to an All-Ireland. To play two All-Irelands in one year with the crowd out there in Croke Park is a wonderful occasion.”

But there were doubts. With the serious nature of his latest injury, there had to have been. Shefflin admitted: “The Monday before we played Dublin in the first round of the Leinster championship, I went down to puck a few balls off a wall and I couldn’t puck the ball because my shoulder was at me. To come from that stage to here… getting scans between the Dublin and Galway match, my mind wasn’t totally in it, I was more concerned about my shoulder. At that stage I spoke to a few people and I said I’d put all those things in the past, look forward and start training. It’s been perfect since then.”

It’s rarely been anything less.