THERE ARE TWO Patrick Horgan narratives at play as the week inches towards the Sunday afternoon of All-Ireland final judgement.
There is the one that the majority of the hurling world have focused on since Cork toppled Limerick in that epic semi-final.
At 36 years of age, with 17 senior seasons in the bank, is this the last chance for Horgan to shed his tag as the best current hurler never to have won an All-Ireland?
And there is the one that the player himself reaches for. The motivation and prize is more personal, rather than getting wrapped up in an obsessive pursuit of a medal.
“If I didn’t love it as much as I did, I wouldn’t play at all. There’d be no reason to. Even to win the Limerick game, for me, wasn’t the reward of the match at all. It was, we get a training session Tuesday, back with the boys. We’d all be down together, we get on really well. We’d meet a lot outside of training. Just to keep that together was just nearly more of an incentive than the next match.
“I’m not aiming 17 years towards a day. That doesn’t mean I haven’t had good times, do you know what I mean? I’ve had good days down through the years and the amount of stories you have from match days and training and 17 years of my life has been coming here, hanging out with the boys.
“New fellas coming in, getting to know them, becoming great friends with them. That means a lot to me. Obviously, it’d be unbelievable if we could get across the line, but it can’t be just about that. In your hurling career, it’s lovely to get it and everybody wants to have it and I’m no different. But I’d look over a long time and did I enjoy it or didn’t enjoy it?
“And I did. You have to be lucky along the way and I have been really lucky, I have to say that.”
When Horgan reflects on his career, he points to his younger self as a hurling obsessive that almost put in too much graft.
“When I started playing. I was on the pitch at five, we were training at seven. Then we’d have a two-hour session, we’re going to be on the field four hours and I’d be worn out. There’s so much more goes on in a game when you realise that, your training routine (has to) change. So definitely early on, I definitely did too much.
“I wasn’t listening, but I was barred from the pitch for a while. Remember the old Páirc (Uí Chaoimh), the two big red gates, they were just closed, not a hope (of getting in). Barred out of the Glen field as well. So then the game started to change and we started thinking differently about the matches. The training routine then changed. So it’s not all about the time you put in, it’s the quality time.”
That desire to keep improving endures. It is just channelled differently now, but hurling remains consuming.
“I just have this thing where I just have to try to get better all the time. It’s weird. I think if you lose that, you’ll just freefall. I feel like I’d be annoyed if I couldn’t do something. When we train, we’d see a lot of players doing a certain move or strike, and then every fella is over trying to do it and you’ll be freaking out if you can’t do it. The hunger to be better is just really strong.
“I think about it a lot though. I can’t put a time in it. Just visualising things that could happen or things that will happen. How to get better. If I’m walking down the street, if I’m with a buddy, I’ll walk away from them and think about something. But they know at this stage. If I go quiet or anything, they know what I’m doing.”
Sunday’s meeting reawakens memories of the two-game saga Clare and Cork served up in September 2013. Horgan was within seconds of being crowned the Cork match-winner, snapping over a glorious shot into Hill 16, before Domhnall O’Donovan’s intervention saved Clare.
“It was disappointing at the time, probably should have got over the line, didn’t.
“Do you know what I can remember (of O’Donovan’s point), is a sequence of play where five or six things happened, and if one thing happened differently, the game was over, and it just kept seeming to break for them. And then the strike, and I think one of our fellas went for a hook and just missed that and it went all over the black spot then.”
“Probably stung for a while after. But after that, it was a case of get back to what you loved doing. You can think of that and it’ll affect you going forward or else just try to forget about it and improve.”
Horgan is an attacking survivor from that Cork team, Seamus Harnedy and Conor Lehane the others still soldiering away as part of the current seutp. They have been joined by a new cast of characters up front as Cork have caught fire this summer – Barrett, Dalton, Connolly and Hayes all bursting into the spotlight.
“All our forwards have been flying. They just bring a lot of energy. Shane, especially, he just doesn’t get tired. It looks like it anyway. But he just keeps going the whole match and it creates a lot of openings for other fellas.
“Then you have the two boys in the wing who always have to be minded as well. We’ve a good thing going inside as well with the other two lads. It’s just been unbelievable to play in the team really.”
The other change on match day is the presence of his young son Jack after the final whistle.
“He’s on the pitch more than me. He loves it. He’d be crying over the noise, but once he touched the grass, then I couldn’t get him off. But for me, on about the scoring thing now, and that’s just a thing.
“But to look back on having Jack there, when all this is happening and we’re getting so much support and sell-out stadiums nearly every time we play and having him there, that’s what it’s about, really, isn’t it? Looking back on things like that.”
It may be the build-up to an All-Ireland final but still seems natural for Horgan to be in a reflective mood. A senior championship career that began with a substitute appearance against Tipperary in June 2008, has seen him be integral to Cork’s apsirations ever since.
The outcome on Sunday won’t influence his future decisions.
“I’ll see myself. If I feel like I can’t contribute to training, contribute to the team, well then there’s plenty young fellas there that can. We see every night in training. That’s the level we’re at here, where there’s going to be fellas not make the panel next week. They’ll feel like they should have and they’ve done so much effort. But that’s the panel we have, and that’s how I see it.
“If I see myself falling off like a performance or speed-wise, and if I feel like I don’t have the hunger to train and put in the amount of effort that the players we have put in, then I wouldn’t. If you don’t have it, you don’t have it.
“Obviously, it’s a really hard thing for anyone to do (retire). It’s going to be really hard for me, 17 years is a long time and before that, you’re still nearly putting in as much time for the previous six or seven because you’re trying to get to here.
“When it does come time where I need to stop playing, I (know I) was so lucky. So it should be easy for me to give it up, have a few pucks around. But let’s see.
“Training on Wednesday night is all it’s about for me. I love coming down early, being ready, throwing on the gear, going out and just do, whatever you want on the pitch. Boys come along, have a few chats. That’s what sport is. It’s great to be involved in these big games and sell outs there (against Limerick). But it’s about the people you meet and the days you have with them.”
