‘The Rock’ was more than just a flamboyant character
Apart from the flamboyance he had, he was a smashing hurler. He had great skills; he had a fantastic first touch. He was commanding around the square and generally kept his man quiet. I think his record up to ’07 would show that his man never really scored anything more than 2 points a game. I think he kept an awful lot of big name players quiet in big games and they never really scored against him.
Secondly, he was very flamboyant, the way he burst out of goal, taking two or three men with him. His catch in the ’04 or ’05 final, where he caught the ball, lost his hurley and had three Kilkenny fellas running after him and then blew them out of the way really typified ‘Sully’. He will always be remembered for that booming point against Limerick in 2001, from the other end of the field was some score. That really cemented his status as a real favourite with the crowd.
Whilst he was struggling for form last year, he got it together for the semi-final against Kilkenny. He still, in his approach to games, got the crowd going. The Cork fans will miss that. But not just the Cork supporters; other fans will miss what he brought to the game, the flamboyance and the colour.
He was a jovial type of guy and he was very easy-going. He was a groomsman at my wedding, so we were quite friendly for a good couple of years. He was a real Messer a great character and he certainly would have loved the fact that he was known as ‘The Rock’ in Cork at the time. I think he was a big wrestling fan and ‘The Rock’ was a wrestling character so that was a big thrill for him. He would have thrived on it; he always thrived on the attention, so he was a really nice guy and we had great crack together.
Sully’s retirement was no shock.
I think the fact that he missed so much pre-season stuff was telling. OK, he was involved with Highfield [Cork-based rugby team], he would have been fit, but he wouldn’t have that hurling sharpness he would have got at training or the league games. I can’t say that I am overly surprised that the present management haven’t looked at him for the full-forward position - or any forward position.
The end of a great era in Cork hurling
I think is time to make a bit of a clean break now and give some of the younger players a chance. To be fair to everyone involved, from way back in the team I was involved with in ‘99, that was ten years ago and ten years is a long time in hurling terms. I mean John Browne, Fergal Ryan, Fergal McCormack and Mark Landers have all gone.
But their time was always going to come to an end. Twelve years is a long time for Diarmuid, so it is still a great tenure. It was going to come an end at some stage and I always had a feeling at the start of the year that I had three players in mind and two of those three were Joe Deane and Diarmuid O’Sullivan, so that’s why I am not surprised. If Denis Walsh is to make progress now, he really has to start giving as many young lads a chance as he can because he is looking at a 2-3 year programme.
It is worth remembering as well that in ’93-’96, when Kevin Hennessy, Tony Sullivan, Tomás Mulcahy and all those guys left, there was nothing coming on from an underage point of view. I think Cork struggled in the ensuing years. Given that, I think the Cork public has to accept that there may be a period of [I won’t say a period in the Doldrums] of team-building in this Cork side.
With the Championship set-up the way it is now, they can still come back in through the back door. If they do get beaten in a Championship game, they still have a chance to regroup and get a couple of games under their belts. I think it will certainly be a case of team-building for the next few years in Cork.
Cork public needs to understand that times have changed
I think people will realise that a number of things have been going on in the background for Cork. Number one, with the strike for the last couple of months they have a lot of time to make up. They know that the manager is taking a group of players that missed the hard slog in January, February and March. He will get a reprieve from that point of view. In addition to that, I think people are surely wise enough to realise that Cork haven’t contested an All-Ireland in the last two years and you could argue that they haven’t come anywhere near Kilkenny’s type of performances. They have never reached the heights that Kilkenny reached in the ’07-’08 campaigns. That’s because the players were aging and the performances were slacking off a small bit. That is a natural occurrence.
I think Denis [Walsh] deserves time, but of course the Cork public will be expecting a lot. If you play for Cork, you expect Cork to win and there is nothing wrong with that. I think people will surely accept that the manager has a 2-3 year programme and if that means getting a defeat this year, going into the Qualifiers and maybe getting to an All-Ireland quarter-final, then people will really have to accept that.
Eoin Cadogan is the stand-out candidate to replace him.
I always hate the notion of robbing Peter to pay Paul, so that would rule Shane O’Neill out for me. To sacrifice Shane in the corner would be a big mistake because he is a superb corner back. I always go with the notion that you should always play a fella in his best position.
I think Eoin Cadogan is a guy who could come in because he has loads of hurling. The game has changed and Noel Hickey isn’t as big as ‘Sully’, so maybe now you need more of a hurling defender in there and Eoin Cadogan certainly ticks the box there.
I wouldn’t be worried about playing a fella in there who is not a ready-made full-back. ‘Sully’ took three years to develop into the position – he started as a corner back. If Eoin Cadogan is the guy, stick with him and hopefully he will get used to it as it is a specialised area. I don’t there are any other players out there in Cork that are ready to play at full-back at the moment.