Iron determination and application key to Henry Shefflin’s ascent to greatness

So the end came over tea and scones. That seems a rather genteel way to conclude the greatest career in Gaelic games rather than, say, a last, frenzied attack to overturn a two-point deficit, a desperate free launched into a hostile square.

Yet when Henry Shefflin faced the crowd yesterday in Langton’s in Kilkenny, there was a curious domesticity to the proceedings and to the detail.

He had watched Clare versus Kilkenny last Sunday at home with his wife, and his inclination had hardened into a decision while sitting on the couch; his career-ending conversation with Kilkenny manager Brian Cody was conducted with those pastries on the table.