Tom Kenny says Patrick Horgan will stand among hurling’s greatest

Tom Kenny believes that his former Cork hurling team-mate Patrick Horgan will be held in as high a regard as anyone else to have ever played the game.

Horgan announced his inter-county retirement on Tuesday evening, having made his senior debut for Cork in 2008. He departs as the top scorer in hurling history and Kenny feels that his list of achievements will ensure he is properly feted.

“In the modern game, playing for 18 seasons is incredible,” he says.

“Playing since 2008, that alone is a great achievement, but then you add in all-time appearance holder and top scorer, it’s been absolutely fantastic.

“There will forever be an asterisk saying he never got the All-Ireland but, unfortunately, that’s sport, it’s cruel in that sense there’s a winner and a loser.

“If ever there was someone more deserving of it, over the history of Cork hurling, it’s definitely been him.

“Every winter, for the last couple of seasons, he’s probably been weighing up his options. Two years ago, if he sat down and was told he’d play in two All-Ireland finals in the next two years, at the back of his mind he probably would have said, ‘yeah, I’d have gotten over the line.’

“Growing up, your dream is to go and play with Cork, and it’s not until you play that you dream of winning, as such. So he’s lived out his dream, and he’s definitely carried that Cork jersey with tremendous pride.

“I know even my own kids would talk about Patrick Horgan and you have fellas who were nine or 10, 18 years ago who were idolising him, and they’re grown men now.

“He has connected with everybody.”

Allied with Horgan’s longevity has been his durability, ensuring that he rarely if ever missed a game.

“He was always fanatical about hurling,” Kenny says.

“When he started out, he’d be out on the pitch 45 minutes or an hour before training and stuff like that.

“With the advancement in science in sport, it probably played into that then too, that he was able to keep himself in such brilliant physical condition that it aided him as he went on.

“I don’t recall him ever having a serious injury, as such, which is incredible — a player nearly always picks up an injury over his career, which probably tells you how he kept himself.

“He was so good at the game that he didn’t put himself in a position where he had to get injured, that he was so skilful with the ball, he evaded any impact that would result in an injury.”

It all added up to a total of 186 games for Cork across league and championship, scoring 57-1357. His place in the pantheon of greatness is assured.

“He’ll be spoken in the same breath as the greats of the game,” Kenny says.

“In terms of his impact, obviously, on the scoring record and the appearance record and things like that, but even just his influence on children in Cork in terms of getting them to play hurling.

“The amount of children you see with white helmets running around and white grips on their hurleys — they wanted to be Patrick Horgan.

“People will always talk about Patrick Horgan; we’ll pass on the stories to our younger generations and they’ll pass on stories, so he’ll be spoken in high regard, not just in Cork hurling but in the history of hurling as a whole.”