Séamus Harnedy profile: He's a perfect example of how you can be from a small junior club and still play for Cork

BARRING a shock defeat for Cork, last week’s All-Ireland SHC preliminary quarter-final win over Offaly was never likely to grab much attention beyond the scoreline of 4-25 to 3-19.

Perhaps that was why the ending of a 44-game championship run passed without notice – not since the 2015 Munster SHC clash against Waterford had Séamus Harnedy failed to take the field for Cork.

Then again, the fact that the St Ita’s man is not one to demand the limelight is perhaps another reason. Instead, it has been a case of doing his job solidly – a scoring tally of 9-129 since 2013, an average of just over three points per game, points to just one strong aspect of his play. Across his whole Cork championship career of 55 games, Harnedy has scored in 50 - hurling statistician par excellence Leo McGough points out that Tony Kelly (58/60) is the gold standard but Harnedy's 91 percent hit-rate from play is better than pretty much anybody else.

For someone who didn’t feature for Cork at minor or U21 level, such longevity is testament to his work ethic and character. Rebel Óg secretary Shane Supple, a St Ita’s colleague of Harnedy, could see the dedication from the start.

“I remember when I first coached him, he was in junior infants or senior infants,” he says.

He was a lot smaller than the other boys in his class at the time but he had an unbelievable skill-level.

“That was the case up until Sciath na Scol – he wasn’t the biggest by any stretch but he was always going around with the hurley in the hand. It wasn’t just confined to hurling either though, they got to an All-Ireland final in soccer and it was the same, he had a phenomenal skill-level.

“He just needed to fill out and get a bit stronger.”

Once that happened, everything flowed and Harnedy is the owner of three Munster SHC medals and two All-Star Awards, a perfect example for Supple to use for others.

“He’d never miss a training session,” he says, “while he mightn’t be togged out, he’s always there.

“In my role as a GDA, or as a tutor giving courses in different clubs, I always used Séamie as a perfect example of how you can be from a small junior club and still play for Cork.

Lads in sixth class or first year, on the edge of the team, can be told that Séamie never made the starting 15 until he was strong enough or big enough and that’s a powerful example.

“As a club, we’re proud out of him.”

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

It was in winning Fitzgibbon Cup medals with UCC in 2012 and 2013 that Harnedy came to a wider audience. Former Tipperary player Eddie Enright was selector and manager respectively for those titles but he had already encountered the developing star.

“I transferred down to Watergrasshill for the last few years of my career,” he says. “I became involved with Imokilly – I played the first year and in the second year I was on and off the team, at the same time as this young guy came in and started to take over at full-forward.

“I saw a few challenge matches and I couldn’t believe what I was looking at in terms of aerial ability and being able to turn. He was completely dominating matches and causing chaos for the opposition.

“He was only about 17 at the time and then, two years later, I happened to be with Paulo [the late Paul O’Connor] in UCC. Séamie was there you could see that he was the real deal, but I actually couldn’t believe inside in the sessions that nobody knew him as he hadn’t featured with Cork at under-age.

“Within a few months, we were winning the Fitzgibbon again and he was key to it.”

Former Cork logistics manager Martin ‘Gatchie’ Walsh was involved with Imokilly and was one of the first to champion Harnedy as a potential inter-county player.

When he did come into the camp, he settled immediately, as Shane O’Neill remembers.

“He was always a scoring threat, he had serious pace and a good hand,” he says. “That’s a great combination.”

“It wasn’t as if he was coming into a Cork team that had won a lot of silverware immediately before that, but he just seemed to get on with it.

“Leading the line and becoming one of the main scorers, it never seemed to faze him. He has always been that cool and calm character and I think you need that.

He definitely has that quality of being able to perform under pressure.”

That he has been able to do that for so long – the current campaign is his 12th in a red jersey -underlines an ability to adapt but also an unceasing commitment.

“The game has shifted and moved on massively even since he started,” O’Neill says.

“As a forward, there’s so much more expected of you now, compared to 10 or 15 years ago, in terms of tracking back and creating space and movement for puck-outs.

“To be able to hold that level of performance and be so consistent, year-in and year-out, you have to be massively dedicated in terms of how you train and how you look after yourself in your free time.

“It’s not easy.”