Teddy McCarthy: No stage too big for him says former team-mate John Considine

John Considine knew Teddy McCarthy better than most and so he is well-placed to appraise his impact.

Team-mates up through the ranks at Sarsfields, the pair were central as the club reached the 1989 county SHC final – losing to Glen Rovers – and then they won an All-Ireland together with Cork.

Despite the glowing list of accolades, McCarthy never used his achievements as status symbols or to give himself a sense of self-worth.

“Teddy had more reason to make a big deal of himself than most people but he never did,” Considine says.

“It’s funny, in a way – obviously, we’re all sad he’s gone but you know that, if he was here, he’d be on your shoulder saying, ‘What’s wrong with ya, boy?!’

He didn’t do excuses on the field or off the field. There were tough times and he just got up and got on with it.

“He was nine months younger than me – I’m 1964 and he was 1965 – but, in a way, he was years ahead of me.

“He played every grade before he was up to the age and even then he was one of the main men.”

The fact that McCarthy remains the only man to win All-Ireland senior hurling and football medals in the same year means his place in the GAA pantheon is assured. Even without that unique feat, Considine feels that the characteristics that McCarthy regularly displayed are what made him such a hero among the supporters of his clubs and county.

No matter what was thrown at him, he was able to respond.

“He had the personality and he was able to handle things like that,” he says.

“How many fellas make their senior inter-county hurling debut in an All-Ireland final? And this, having told the selectors that he was going on holidays and wouldn’t be bothering his ass going to the semi-final?!

“A guy like that, there’s no stage too big for him and that’s what people love about him.

When ball needed winning, he went and won it himself. He didn’t need anybody else to get it for him.

“He was so independent. Plenty fellas learned to their cost after they tried to dog him on the field that it was not a good course of action, because he was able to stand up for himself physically.

“In the eyes of the general public, he was real hero material – here was a guy who could win his own ball and couldn’t be pushed around and he could play any game he wanted. Fellas love that.

TOUGH

“That independence, on the field and off the field, you can see why he was and is so well-loved. That toughness – all of us probably wanted to be more like him, in that respect.

“He was a real figure that everybody looked up to.”

In Irish sport, there are a few superstars who are readily identifiable by just one name. Teddy was certainly one of those and it’s a strong chance that his like will never be seen again.

With male dual players almost certainly a thing of the past at the highest level – not to mention the fact that Cork are the only county to complete a senior double since 1990 – his claim to fame is unlikely to become one he will ever have to share.

It is the icing on the cake that was already legendary.

“Obviously, it depends on teams being successful in the same year and there’s also obviously the question as to whether the dual player is gone at the highest level and all of that,” Considine says.

“He literally stands out in history. Name-recognition, the whole lot. He was always headline back-page news – or front-page, sadly, after he died.

“There are names that just up there because of what they do. He has his hurling All-Irelands and football All-Irelands – okay, he doesn’t have the same number that some fellas have but he more than contributed to winning those medals, put it that way.”

• For more details, see https://www.gaacork/teddymac/