Stubborn Patrick Horgan will always use doubters as fuel

The Cork talisman will get another championship campaign underway against Clare this weekend. 

GAME FACE: Patrick Horgan at Croke Park as Centra announced an extension of their sponsorship of the All-Ireland GAA Hurling Senior Championship for another five years. Pic: INPHO/Dan Sheridan

Patrick Horgan is a stubborn man, he is told. “By some people, I’d say," he smiles.

Playing, enduring for Cork this long, he would have to be. Last Sunday week was his first national final win at the ninth time of asking. Of course, he is mulish but admits to wondering if one would ever go his way – “I’ve often thought it.” 

In a career spanning three decades, the blows have rained down upon him and still he stands. Three years ago, he was dropped for an All-Ireland quarter-final against Galway. “I obviously thought that was the end of it, really. As in, I'm not getting in, or what do I need to do? I was trying to do all I could, which didn't work out that year. Obviously, it wasn't good enough.” 

But for it to be suggested he wasn’t up to scratch, he had to bite his tongue. “It was probably in Clare somewhere a couple of years ago, some radio fella was asking was I the issue, instead of just leaving. The same fella knows nothing about me, you know what I mean? So it's kind of just going, ‘He knows nothing, what's he on about?’ 

“Obviously, you don't want to chop someone down there and then, but in the back of your head, you're kind of saying, ‘He doesn't know me,’ and just drive on and try to use it. Not that you'd be thinking it before matches, but if there was someone against you, and it's in everyone, you'd say, ‘Oh, I'll drive on here and we'll see.’” 

Pat Ryan’s arrival in July 2022 was a blessing for him, Horgan has no hesitation in saying. “Kind of a new lease of life, and new ways of thinking and all that. Gave everybody a fair crack of the whip as well. No matter young or old, a new manager coming in, he could obviously just start at the top and start chopping. He didn't, and I'm obviously thankful for that.” 

Horgan was part of several Cork attacks who were criticised for not working hard enough. The brickbats don’t come at the forward line as much now. “I suppose the role of a forward is a, b, c, d, and if you're not doing them all, it's so easy to see. The first people you'd hear from if something needs to be said to you is a player around you because they're the ones that are going to be affected by it.

“Pat's not going to be affected by it too much. He doesn't have to track someone back, or the coaches don't have to track anyone back, but if you don't do your bit, either side of the ball, you're putting one of your teammates in a hole, and that's definitely what you don't want there."

Horgan finds it easier to put the hurley down these days. With his and wife Ashley’s three-year-old Jack filling their days, decompressing from the game comes easier. As has been mentioned before, there was a time when he had to be barred from pitches because he was training too much.

“There's so much work goes in when you're actually on, that when you're not training, you have to be off, so you just have to trust the work you do, and put in enough work when you're there. That when you go away from it, that you don't have to revisit in your mind, or your head is not playing tricks, and you're saying, ‘Oh, did you do enough there, did you do this, did you do that?’ 

"It's just important, I suppose, you tick all the boxes and do as much as you can, and then just switch off and go out the back with Jack and chasing him.”

As he held Jack aloft in the crowd invasion after last Sunday week’s Division 1 final, the thought hit Horgan that, “Jesus, I hope this would last forever”. But it was more for his son’s sake than his. He later joined the rest of the team to toast the win but was home after an hour and a half. “You'd be just thinking we were back on the Monday night training.” 

The 36-year-old looks at the legions following Cork as an advantage. “We've probably the best supporters in any sport in Ireland. There's no team being followed, I'd say, like we are. So we're absolutely thankful for that and hopefully it continues. And they do make a difference, to be fair.” 

Scoring six goals against Clare in Ennis last month, Horgan points out they had a 100% conversion rate. For it to happen again on Sunday would require a lot of fortune. “I actually put that down to a bit of luck,” he says of the goal frenzy. “There was one that hit someone's helmet and went in.”

* Patrick Horgan was speaking at the announcement of Centra’s five-year extension as sponsors of the All-Ireland senior hurling championship.