'There is a mental side to the game this team might be close to cracking'

Pat Henderson counts, alongside Brian Cody and Ned Quinn, among the most influential people in Kilkenny GAA over the last four decades.

Kilkenny delegate Pat Henderson during the Leinster GAA Convention at Clayton Whites Hotel in Wexford. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

Came a knock on Pat Henderson’s door.

The autumn of 1978. Kevin Fennelly Sr and Seán Walsh have come in from Ballyhale. Henderson still has the same house in Talbot’s Inch and a smile takes over at the memory. “They were sitting where you are now,” he notes. “I took them into the sitting room, because I could see they meant business.