PATRICK Horgan has been a Cork senior hurler for almost half of his life.

The Rebels face Limerick in the Allianz Hurling League Division 1 Group A opener in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday at 7.30pm and the new campaign will be Hogan’s 16th in a red jersey.

The Glen Rovers star is certainly glad to have 2022 done with – for the first time in more than a decade, he found himself as a substitute, kept in reserve for Cork’s last two championship games, against Antrim and Galway.

Cork lost the latter match, an All-Ireland quarter-final, by just a point, having wasted numerous scoring chances in the first half. Little wonder that he felt frustrated watching on.

“Yeah, I suppose it was challenging,” he says. “I thought for a lot of last year that there was a lot of, I suppose, treatment going on that I thought wasn't fair. That doesn't mean to say anybody else didn't think it was fair.

“Anybody who doesn't play thinks they're being treated unfairly, but I was one of them and I thought I was being treated unfairly. I could see that happening from the sideline and, while I was wishing that it wasn't happening because they're all my friends out there and I want to see the best for all of them, it was tough.

“I had no control over what I could do, only to just go out and warm up, and if I was called on I'd try and do my bit. But it was really tough, I will say.”

With Pat Ryan – the sixth manager of Horgan’s Cork career – now in charge, the all-time leading scorer in hurling championship history is raring to go for 2023 rather than dwelling on last year.

“Is it something I think about? No,” he says.

“I obviously prepare myself the best I can for every game, every week and every year. I know what's required for myself to be competitive. Maybe I didn't do enough, maybe I did... I don't know. I don't think much went right last year and I don't know what that was down to.

I suppose everybody has their own opinions but I just think the year was a failure before it kind of even happened. 

"There was stuff going on all the time that really is not supposed to happen on a team.

“Everybody is supposed to be positive and everybody is supposed to be driving each other, exactly the way it's happening now. When you have fellas training three, four or five times a week, giving it their all, the least they deserve is probably a bit of encouragement. That's exactly what's happening at the moment.

POSITIVITY

“Every fella is driving on, we're getting a buzz off each other and a buzz off the positivity around the whole group. It's a great place to go. When I go to work in the morning I'm thinking, ‘I can't wait to go training tonight', and that's always a good place to be.’”

One bright spot last year was Patrick and his wife Ashley welcoming baby Jack. He’s lucky that the newcomer is always in good form but he doesn’t feel there is a change in focus either way.

“It’s just something that I do, something that I enjoy,” he says.

“It’s a pastime, really – I know it takes a lot of time so ‘pastime’ is probably not enough but it’s something I love doing.

“It won’t be forever, so when I am doing it, I’d like to enjoy. It just gives me that bit of enjoyment that nothing else can give me, do you know what I mean, sport-wise or pastime-wise.

You get a buzz off hurling, playing in front of a crowd, training with the best players in your county. That would be hard to replace and it’s something I don’t want to replace, now anyway.”

In an interview before Christmas, Pat Ryan accepted that it would be a failure if Cork didn’t win an All-Ireland during his tenure. Previously, Horgan has said that gaining a Celtic Cross wasn’t the be-all and end-all for him, but he can see both sides of the coin.

“I know where Pat is coming from,” he says.

“Pat has a goal. We all have a goal but I suppose when you break that down, when you come down to a player, like the player needs to focus on what’s right in front of his face there and then.

“If I start talking about three years' time like anything could happen in three years' time, do you know what I mean? As a player, you are going out to win every match, every training, every season you can.

“Obviously the goal is to win an All-Ireland. That’s everyone’s goal. Myself, I answer that question in a way that if I was to give it up today, would it be a failure, would it be something I would be disappointed with – yeah, obviously I would have been freaked out of my head not to win an All-Ireland but at the same time I answered that question in a way that I loved every minute of it.

SAVAGE

“I loved being involved with Cork and the amount of players I have played with, and the savage players I have played with, legends of the game like, do you know.

“That’s what I love and I enjoyed all of that, and was all of that a failure? No.

“The only thing I can look back on and, ‘I wish, I wish,’ is win an All-Ireland.

“And it happens, only one team can win it every year and we will certainly be trying anyway. That’s all we can do.”