Patrick Horgan of Cork is congratulated by supporters after the Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 3 match between Cork and Limerick at SuperValu Páirc Ui Chaoimh in Cork. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile.
By John Harrington
It’s the Monday after Cork have beaten Limerick in the All-Ireland SHC semi-final, and we’re in Páirc Uí Chaoimh for their All-Ireland Final media night.
Patrick Horgan walks into the auditorium with the sort of easy, confident stroll that evokes a Hollywood gunslinger entering a saloon.
He places his hurley on the table in front of him and holds a sliotar in his hand for the duration of the interview.
Easy know from the way he uses them that he’s the sort who likes to keep the tools of his trade within reach.
If you’re a Cork supporter looking for encouragement wherever you can find it ahead of Sunday’s All-Ireland Final, then Horgan’s demeanour throughout the 23 minutes of his chat with the assembled media would have provided some.
He was chatty, relaxed, and wryly humoured. He certainly didn’t look like a man preparing for a match that some are framing as the defining one of his career, and that’s probably because he doesn’t buy into that narrative at all himself.
“Honestly, and I'm not saying it because I'm in the position, but it's actually not even close to that for me,” said Horgan.
“I'm not aiming 17 years towards a day. That doesn't mean I haven't had good times, do you know what I mean?
“I’ve had good days down through the years and the amount of stories you have from match days going down through the years and training and 17 years of my life has been coming here, hanging out with the boys, new fellas coming in, getting to know them, becoming great friends with them.
“That means a lot to me. Obviously, it'd be unbelievable if we could get across the line, but it can't be just about that. You know what I mean?
“In your hurling career, it's lovely to get it and everybody wants to have it and I’m no different. But I'd look over a long time and did I enjoy it or didn't enjoy it and I did.
“Training on Wednesday night is all it's about for me. I love coming down early, being ready, throwing on the gear, going out and just do whatever you want on the pitch.
“Boys come along, have a few chats or whatever. That's what sport is. It's great to be involved in these big games and sell outs there last week. But it's about the people you meet and the days you have with them.
“Even to win the Limerick game, for me, wasn't the reward of the match at all. It was like, we get a training session Tuesday, back with the boys.”
Patrick Horgan, Cork, celebrates a late score as Gerry O'Grady, Clare, looks on during the 2008 GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Quarter-Final, Clare v Cork, Semple Stadium, Thurles, Co. Tipperary. Picture credit: Dáire Brennan / SPORTSFILE
Horgan has always had a pure love of hurling for hurling’s sake, sometimes too much.
In his early years with club and county he’d be at the pitch two hours before training doing his own individual session before the collective work begun.
He was warned by his coaches about the perils of over-training but they couldn’t get through to him and eventually he had to be saved from himself.
“I wasn't listening, so I was barred from the pitch and everything for a while,” says Horgan. “Remember the old park, the two big red gates? They were just closed, not a hope!
“Barred out of the Glen field as well. So then the game started to change and then different things, and we started thinking differently about the matches. The training routine then changed. So it's not all about the time you put in, it's the quality time.”
He’s 36 years of age and in his 17th season of senior inter-county hurling and yet he doesn’t have think twice about answering in the affirmative when you ask him if he’s enjoying the game now more than ever.
Where does this well-spring of pure enthusiasm come from?
“I think it could be I just have this thing where I just have to try to get better all the time,” he says.
“It's weird. I think if you lose that, you'll just freefall. I feel like I'd be annoyed if I couldn't do something or try to do something.
“When we train, we'd see a lot of players doing a certain move or strike or whatever, and then every fella is over trying to do it and you'll be freaking out if you can't do it. I think it's just the hunger to be better is just really strong.”
Patrick Horgan of Cork during the Munster GAA Hurling Senior Championship Round 2 match between Cork and Clare at SuperValu Páirc Ui Chaoimh in Cork. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile
That unsated appetite for self-improvement hasn’t just elevated Horgan into the pantheon of all great forwards, it’s a huge source of inspiration for all of his team-mates.
He doesn’t just leave them shaking their heads in wonder with his pure skill, he’s also an S&C monster.
In an era when every kilo lifted and metre per second ran is measured, Horgan is still somehow hitting PBs at a stage in his career when most athletes would be in physical decline.
“I think the man is getting faster as the years go on,” says Horgan’s Cork team-mate, Niall O’Leary.
“He's getting older but he's getting faster and fitter. It's ridiculous. He's hitting top speeds at the moment and I don't know how he's doing it. I wish I'll be like that when I'm his age. I don't know -- it's his movement, it's everything really.
“His ability to win the ball when it's coming at him at speed is unbelievable. It's great to have a fella like that in the camp that you can put yourself up against during the week.
“It gives you great confidence going into the weekend that you're going to be marking a fella who probably isn't as good as him. It's great to have him."
Patrick Horgan of Cork and his son Jack after the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-final match between Limerick and Cork at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile.
So, what is the secret to Horgan’s longevity? How is he still one of the very best in a position where traditionally players have a shorter shelf-life because speed off the mark is such a prerequisite?
“I actually don't know,” he says. “I suppose when you talk about trying to get better instead of going down the road of getting really fit every year, it's specific training where maybe you don't have to run so long.
“You sharpen up and the weights you lift are more explosive. Twitching fast, I suppose, that's what I've been thinking.
“I suppose there's just a bit of hunger for the game I suppose as well to just run through things. Just sprint as hard as you can.”
It probably helps too that Horgan approaches hurling with an artist’s mindset.
He strives to hone his craft, experiments with new techniques, and treats every match as a blank canvas on which he must prove himself all over again.
“I think about it a lot,” says Horgan. “Just visualising. Visualising things that could happen or things that will happen. How to get better. Anything.
“Technique, stuff if I'm walking down the street, if I'm with a buddy, I'll walk away from them and think about something. But they know at this stage. If I go quiet or anything, they know what I'm doing.”
Horgan might not buy into the narrative that Sundays All-Ireland Final is a career-defining moment for him – the chance to finally win an All-Ireland medal and become the highest scorer in the history of the championship by scoring three or more points.
For those of us watching from the stands it is a captivating sub-plot, though.
For all he has given the game of hurling, unless you hail from the Banner County you couldn’t but be happy for him if the Glen Rovers man finally gets his hands on the prize he’s been chasing for the last 17 years.