Henry’s perfect curtain call?

Who best to talk about Henry Shefflin than those who knew him best — his team-mates.

As he hunts a record 10th Celtic Cross tomorrow, the Irish Examiner spoke to a colleague from each of his nine All-Ireland victories.

1. 2000: Kilkenny 5-15 Offaly 1-14 (H Shefflin 1-3, 0-2 frees)

John Power: “That Offaly team were gone over the hill, to a degree. They were never going to win. We bombarded them and it was done and dusted in 19 minutes. I remember Henry was in the corner and John Hoyne was out past him. Looking back, I think back to his first for the senior team, a challenge against Wexford in Mullinavat. I was full-forward against Darragh Ryan, and Henry was in alongside me. He fielded two unbelievable balls and I could only look and admire.

“He’s after doing so many special things but the 2013 drawn All-Ireland final stands out for me. It was as if he was holding up a ceiling and bricks were falling everywhere but he kept holding. Kilkenny were being outhurled by a whirlwind Galway performance but he refused to buckle and saved the day. It was another example of his greatness but in my eyes it was him at his best.”

2. 2002 Kilkenny 2-20 Clare 0-19 (H Shefflin 1-7, 0-4 frees)

Charlie Carter: “For me, it was in 2002 that Henry really took over the mantle as leader of the team. Led by him, we beat Cork in the league final in Thurles and that was without DJ. For DJ’s goal in the final, Henry left Seanie McMahon for dead. We were in a bit of bother at the start of the second half and I remember being told to warm up but then Henry scored that great goal, and we took over.

“It’s well known Henry wouldn’t have set the world alight as a teenager but he didn’t come from nowhere. Nobody would have imagined what he was going to do what he has done but his rookie year was a great one, even though it wasn’t a great year for Kilkenny. He’s here in his 16th year and only because his attention to detail is so good. To come back from the injuries he’s had and achieve what he has, nobody else has that hunger. And probably what’s most impressive is he doesn’t hog the limelight... he never milks it.”

3. 2003 Kilkenny 1-14 Cork 1-11 (H Shefflin 0-6, 0-4 frees)

Martin Comerford: “By 2003, the likes of DJ, Charlie and John Power were either going or gone and Henry had become the spiritual leader of the team. I would have been in St Kieran’s with Henry and Michael Kavanagh. I wouldn’t have been too friendly with Henry — he was a country lad and I was fella from the city — but as we played more together, we got closer. He was a late developer but when he developed, he sure developed. The skill was always there. His brother John was a fine wristy hurler and Tommy was a good one too, so it was in the family.

“He was and still is the ultimate team player. There was never any ego or selfishness about him. He was obviously the star player on every team but he worked harder than anybody else. You always knew he was going to come back from those heartbreaking injuries because of his determination. It just showed his dedication not just to get the best out of his career but his dedication to the Kilkenny and Ballyhale jerseys too.”

4. 2006 Kilkenny 1-16 Cork 1-13 (H Shefflin 0-8, 0-5 frees)

James Ryall: “Stopping Cork doing the three in a row was a big motivation, given that they had stopped us doing it in 2004. Henry was his usual composed self on the day. The work-rate of the forwards like himself in putting pressure on the Cork backs clearing was out of this world. The memory of Henry that sticks out for me is that penalty against Tipperary in 2009. Henry was always practising them. I’d be strolling into Nowlan Park and he’d be rattling the ball to the net. Penalty after penalty after penalty. Martin Comerford would be passing the ball back out to him and Henry would be hopping the net. You’d be wondering would anyone stop one in a match. It showed to me the precision he put into his game, night after night.”

5. 2007 Kilkenny 2-19 Limerick 1-15 (H Shefflin 1-2, 0-1 free)

Michael Kavanagh: “His technique for the goal was just brilliant. Stephen Lucey held him up and he and the goalkeeper Brian Murray had surrounded him too but Henry had the strength, brain and vision to find the net. You mightn’t know it at times but Henry is a big man and uses his body very well.

“In St Kieran’s, he was a corner-forward but wasn’t a star, although I remember him coming back after one summer and he had stretched into a big unit. He’d a great debut year in 1999 but what stood out for me was how he reacted to losing the All-Ireland final a week later in the U21 final against Galway. For us on the senior team, it was a monkey off the back and he really embraced that victory. Lads would avoid pucking the ball across the field with him because he hit it with such speed. He was a nightmare that way but he was testing you and expecting you to test him as well. It’s often I see his jeep outside Nowlan Park now where there isn’t training and you know he’s inside there in the gym putting in extra shifts. He’s an extremely driven man.”

6. 2008 Kilkenny 3-30 Waterford 1-13 (H Shefflin 0-8, 0-5 frees, 0-1 65)

James “Cha” Fitzpatrick: “Henry is always striving for perfection with the club and county. The scoreboard is almost irrelevant to him. Even when that game in 2008 was nearly over after 20 minutes, you could hear him on the pitch saying ‘keep going, keep going, keep going. Pressure, pressure, pressure’.

“There isn’t a part of Henry’s game that he hasn’t worked on religiously. His house is close to the 11th and 13th holes on the Mountain View Golf Club and many a golfer has seen a path worn down the field by Henry training and over the winter months as well. Away from the hurling, there has never been any cockiness about him.”

7. 2009 Kilkenny 2-22 Tipperary 0-23 (H Shefflin 1-8, 1-0 pen, 0-7 frees)

PJ Ryan: “It was a day when things went right for me but when it came to the pressure moment of the game who else but Henry stood up and scored? Nobody else was going to take the penalty. He had been going steadily in the game before that, tapping over frees, but when it mattered most, he gave us the boost we needed.

“He was always a great team-mate, a gentleman, and remains a good friend of mine. His belief was that we were all in it together and you were training hard not just for yourself but the fella next to you. On the field, he showed no mercy but that’s the same for all the top forwards — they all want to score. It wasn’t often that I got near any of his shots in training.”

8. 2011 Kilkenny 2-17 Tipperary 1-16 (H Shefflin 0-7, 0-5 frees)

Eddie Brennan: “It’s only since I’ve read what Henry said about his injuries that I’ve got an appreciation for what he went through. I never had a bad injury so I didn’t understand at the time. Henry has always been stimulated by a challenge. To come back the way he did the year after damaging a cruciate for the second time would have been hugely satisfying for him.

“I was near to him in 2009 when we won the penalty. He said to me ‘what am I going to do? I’m going to have to go for it’. He was breathing and composing himself. Of all the players I’ve ever played with, I’ve never known anyone to embrace the pressure as much as him. He did what a great player does, something that nobody else would want. Didier Drogba taking a penalty, Jonny Wilkinson kicking that drop goal... like them Henry delivered when the stakes were at their highest.”

9. 2012 Kilkenny 3-22 Galway 3-11 replay (H Shefflin 0-9, 0-5 frees, 0-2 65s)

Noel Hickey: “People remember him most for the first day when he dragged Kilkenny along with him. He saved the day for us. The second day, it was always going to be hard to reach that level again but he was still showing the lads what was required. He’s always been that leader for Kilkenny.

“With Henry, you came to expect things. No matter what type of ball you put into him, low or high, he would either win it or make it tough for the other fella to clear it. That was all down to the training he did. Everything he did, he did right.”