Tony Leen: It feels like a small piece of the Kingdom itself has died

One fine morning in Cork Dwyer pressed twenty quid into my daughter's hand for her first communion. I felt a relationship change.

CENTRE OF THE KINGDOM: Kerry captain Jimmy Deenihan, second from left, make his captain's speech, in the company of An Taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald TD, GAA president Paddy McFlynn, teammates including Jack O'Shea, Páidí Ó'Sé, Ger Power, Tommy Doyle, Murt Galvin, manager Mick O'Dwyer, Tim Kennelly, Kerry County Board Chairman Frank King, Ger Lynch and Charlie Nelligan, following victory in the All-Ireland Senior Football Championhip Final match between Kerry and Offaly at Croke Park in Dublin. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

We walked the strand, breakfasted and golfed together (hastily), shared drives that had a vague sense of crashorama when he had the wheel, and for more than 12 years we argued football and reshaped them into columns for this newspaper.

Those pieces – often as devilish as their author - were chiselled and shaped in bars and cafes, empty and overflowing dressing rooms, the front seat of his BMW, the windswept fairways in Waterville, and several unlikely points between Portmagee and Portlaoise. Wherever I could corral his attention for half an hour.