By John Harrington

Former team-mates and opponents of legendary Cork dual star, Teddy McCarthy, have reacted with sadness and shock at his death on Tuesday at the age of just 57.

McCarthy has a special place in GAA lore as the only player to win senior All-Ireland titles in hurling and football in the same year, a feat he achieved in 1990.

Over the course of his 11-year senior inter-county career he won two All-Irelands in both codes, six Munster football titles, three Munster hurling titles, one National Hurling League, one All-Star award, and one Texaco Footballer of the Year award.

He was crowned Footballer of the Year in 1990 after capping a tremendous season by playing an inspirational role in Cork’s All-Ireland Final victory over Mayo, scoring two points from play.

Current Cork football manager, John Cleary, was also a key player for Cork that day, and admits the death of his friend and former team-mate has been very difficult to take.

“I’m absolutely shocked at the news,” said Cleary. “I met him there recently and would meet him at a lot of the games. He was at our football game on Saturday against Kerry with a good friend of mine and was in good spirits.

“He is someone I used to meet regularly at the games over the years and we'd always have great chats. He was always good company and always had a good opinion. He'll be sorely, sorely missed.”

As a footballer and a hurler, McCarthy was a force of nature on the pitch. His raw power, skill, and almost supernatural ability under a high ball made him a unique talent.

“He was outstanding,” says Cleary. “He burst onto the scene when he came out of minor and won three U-21 All-Ireland medals with Cork which is forgotten really in the whole scheme of things but was an unbelievable achievement as well.

“I suppose his achievement at doing the double is the big thing, but as a footballer he had six Munster medals, he had two All-Ireland medals, he was footballer of the year in 1989. He was an outstanding footballer and someone we looked to at midfield if things were going against us.

“At that time there wasn't any emphasis on the short kick-out, it was kick it out to the middle of the field and your midfielders were so important. For our team that time, Teddy was so important to us and very often when the pressure came on Teddy was the one that lifted us and got us back on track again.

“He was inspirational in that regard, and when Teddy was in form he was unstoppable.”

The Cork football team that McCarthy starred for had some legendary battles with Meath in the late eighties.

Meath midfielder Liam Hayes went head to head with McCarthy on those occasions, and later in life would publish McCarthy’s autobiography.

“He was an extraordinary talent,” says Hayes of McCarthy. “I know it's cliched to say it, but he was before his time. He wasn't just extraordinary because he could play both games, but in terms of his physique and his abilities.

“We knew little about him really in Meath. We wouldn't have been watching the hurling that closely so we came across him in '87 and '88 and weren't prepared for him really because we didn't know that much about him as a footballer.

“He just had an extraordinary athleticism about him. Strong on the ball and massive in the air even though he wasn't a huge man. He wasn't that tall, but, Jesus, he could leap.

“What he also had was that swagger. God almighty, he'd be strutting in Croke Park as if he owned the place and clearly expected to win.

“I love the story he tells in his book about how Jack Lynch used to call into the house and as soon as he saw Jack Lynch within 100 yards he'd start pucking a ball around and kicking a ball around and trying to put on a show for him to be noticed and you can well imagine that because Teddy had that in spades.”

McCarthy’s extraordinary athleticism also stood out for one of his opponents on the hurling field, Tipperary’s Colm Bonnar, who had the unenviable task of trying to limit his influence on a number of occasions.

“He was incredible,” says Bonner. “I would have first come across him first in 1984 Munster U21 championship. I was corner-back and was marking a young fella, McCarthy, who was a year younger than me. He had a fair bit of pace and we had a fair battle in the first half.

“Then at the start of the second-half he was moved out to midfield and he just started taking over. You could just see this fella jumping around the field catching ball after ball, and you could see he was the sort of player that needed to be out in the middle of the action like that so he could get under the ball and use that power and that pace.

“So that was my introduction to him and then obviously both of us went on to play senior hurling. In 1988 we marked each other in midfield and his reputation at that stage was just phenomenal even though he was just 23.

“My only tactic was to anticipate the ball before it dropped and take a step forward and bring it down with my hurley. So I would be jumping forward with my hurley fully outstretched and he would be coming jumping in behind my back and trying to catch it.

“There's a picture that was in the Cork Examiner after that game where he was above my shoulders and I'm 5'10'' and my arm is outstretched holding a 36'' hurley and he had the bas of my hurley caught in his hand because my hurley was in front of the path of the ball.

“When I saw that I just said, my God, what a jump. And, again, the bravery to be able to do that because in those days fellas were pulling hard anywhere near the ball under a high ball. Lads would just let fly. But Teddy had no fear.

“That plyometric jump he had was just incredible to watch. The timing of it, especially in terms of hurling where you have a small ball coming down, to time it where you catch it at it's highest point, higher than most people's hurleys were going, required just incredible timing and coordination and power. Everything really. And he had a good engine as well, he was able to get around the field. Good feet as well in terms of getting past people.

“He was always a danger and when he used to go centre-forward he was always a problem for us. Paul Delaney would pick him up a few times. There was no puck-out strategy then only to get it past the '65 and into the half-forward line and when you have someone like Teddy who could read it and jump, he was a real ball-winner for Cork.

“It's just very sad. It's hard to credit he's not with us.”

McCarthy was a flamboyant, ultra-confident performer on the pitch, but off it he was a different sort of personality.

He created a piece of history in 1990 that will now never be matched by anyone because the dual player no longer exists at the highest level of the game, but he was never the type to glory in his status as a great of the game.

“He was very unassuming,” says John Cleary. “After Cork won the All-Ireland hurling in 1990 and we were to play Meath in the football final in two weeks' time, he came in to football training and fellas were congratulating him but he was just brushing them aside and said, 'look lads, forget about that, it's gone, we need to look forward'.

“He didn't want to dwell on it. His focus was totally on us and he wanted to deflect away from what he had achieved the previous Sunday.

“That's the way he was and I know all through the years that it was something he never boasted about or never had any airs and graces about himself doing that. As I say, he exuded confidence on the field but off it he was so quiet and unassuming and wasn't interested in the limelight at all.

“We're still in a state of shock on getting the news yesterday evening. It will be very sad. Teddy was a great character and he was always confident at Cork matches. He loved Cork and he loved both his clubs in Sarsfields and Glanmire.

“We'll all miss him around the place.”