John Horgan on what made Hoggie one of Cork's greatest hurlers

The list is endless, great hurlers who failed to end up with a Celtic Cross in their possession, players who never climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand to the podium on All-Ireland final Sunday.

Quite a few counties across the GAA landscape are represented on that list and it's too lengthy to put names on those who didn't succeed in that quest.

But should a glittering sporting career be defined by the number of medals or accolades he or she has won, the very simple answer to that question is an emphatic no.

Not sitting at the top table when All-Ireland medals are being handed out should not diminish the vast contribution they have made over a lengthy period of time.

Patrick Horgan called time on his inter-county hurling career a week ago, in his final delivery as one of Cork's greatest ever hurlers, he stated that he was doing so on his terms.

And that is the way it should have been, a player of immense stature, not just here on Leeside but across the playing fields of the entire hurling country, great GAA cathedrals from his own doorstep in SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh all the way up to Corrigan Park in the glens of Antrim.

His contribution and dedication to the game had no boundaries, for 18 years he wore the red jersey as a badge of honour, in fact that dedication was in one word, extraordinary.

He was obsessed with being the best version of his hurling self, something that you have to be to spend the amount of time he did at the top end of the game.

Since his first involvement all those years ago the game has been evolving all the time, unrecogniseable from what it once was before a very young Patrick Horgan emerged to subsequently become one of its finest ever exponents.

AMAZED

The Cork hurling managers that he played under never ceased to be amazed with his dedication, being out on a pitch at 5pm for training that wasn't scheduled to begin until nearly two hours later.

In an interview last week one of those managers, John Meyler, gave a perfect summary of what he was like.

“There's very little instruction you have to give to guy like him because he had so much talent, so much ability.

“When you get players like he was it was more or less building the team around him, getting fellas working with him and providing the ball for him.

“Nobody saw the time, the practice or the effort that he put in. But yet, it looked so simple then on the Sunday when he was playing against Kilkenny, Tipperary etc."

Hoggie did not get his hands on the medal that he would have coveted but his list of other achievements would have one mesmerised, a quartet of All-Stars without the county reaching the promised land in any of those years.

He has four Munster minefield medals and one league medal safely tucked away. His scoring contributions were staggering, 32-683 in the championship, 25-674 in the league, add those two together and it would make your eyes water.

Twice he was so close but ultimately so far away from landing that medal that his wonderful career so richly deserved. 

He was denied in 2013 by a player who scored just one point in his championship career as a Clare hurler, Domhall O'Donovan after Horgan had delivered a wondrous point to put Cork ahead deep, deep into injury time.

It was a similar story in 2024 when Cork were denied the most legitimate of frees for a foul on Robbie O'Flynn, again in stoppage by the same county that would have levelled the match.

Twice, the tiniest of margins made the difference, the thinnest of lines between ecstasy and agony.

Of course, you don't always get what you so richly deserve in life and across the sporting landscape, there are a litany of heartbreaking stories.

He made 90 appearances for Cork in championship hurling, that is another staggering statistic to accompany the many more.

QUALITY

Down through the corridors of time, few counties have produced so many inside forwards with so much quality as Cork have had.

Again it's a lengthy list, Charlie McCarthy, Seanie O'Leary, Joe Deane, JBM, Ray Cummins, Seanie McGrath, Ben O'Connor among many others, all superb at what they could do, changing a game in a flash.

Some might be out of a game for a lengthy stretch but when you possessed the scoring qualities that they had the course of history could be changed.

In over 60 years as a supporter and a GAA reporter I have been fortunate and priveleged to have witnessed some of the greatest hurlers of all time exhibit their vast array of skills, their scoring powers, those type of players that you just knew were going to play a major role in their county colours for many a long day.

Patrick Horgan ranks up there alongside the greats, his longevity, his scoring contributions, his placed ball expertise, his vision were all second to none.

In a recent club game with his beloved Glen against Midleton he lined up a 20 metre free at the city end of Páirc Uí Rinn and with his preparation, his placing of the ball you just knew he was going to smash home the delivery.

He didn't always execute those type of goals from a similar distance but there would have been a major fear among opponents and opponents supporters that he was going for it.

One occasion stands ten feet tall among those type of opportunities, that never-to-be-forgotten Saturday night down the Pairc when Cork were awarded a last-gasp penalty against one of the greatest hurling teams of all time, the men in the green jersey of Limerick.

If there was ever a high-pressure situation, this was it, a city and county held its breath as Horgan lined up the shot. The outcome sent that same the city and county into raptures, one of those moments that time or memory will never erase.

Horgan had that ability, saving a game when all might have looked lost.

His popularity among the young of Leeside is massive, at every final whistle he is the one that they dash towards, he is the one that they all aspire to be when out in their back gardens as he used to be all those years ago as his very young life as Glen hurler began.

He has spoken of doing some coaching in the future when that famed Glen jersey is hung up.

And what a role model he'd be, this guy has always been a shining example in the Cork and Glen colours and one has no doubt that those young players under his tutelage would learn so much.

There will be a book too in the future and again no doubt that it will sell like hot cross buns, a top of the charts publication.

Where this once full-time hurling reporter and now a columnist is concerned, Hoggy stands right up there alongside the greats of our great game.