Greatest Scores: Henry Shefflin

Kilkenny's Henry Shefflin spoke to GAA.ie recently about what he regards as the greatest score of his career.

Most players can recall the special points and goals which stand out most in their careers, but the task of remembering those unique individual moments probably gets harder when you are the all-time top scorer in the history of the GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship.

With 24 goals and 424 points in Championship hurling to his name since 1999, Henry Shefflin has had enough of those rhapsodies to cover three or four careers. And being one of the stars of the great Kilkenny team which has won eight All-Irelands since his inter-county career began in 1999, most of those scores have come in finals and semi-finals in Croke Park. The biggest matches, the biggest moments, the biggest stage.

You'd forgive him then, if he was reluctant to name one that stands out above all others. After all, how do you choose one special jewel out of a multitude of diamonds?

Yet he can name it without much hesitation. It came in the dying stages of the 2002 GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship semi-final clash between Tipperary and Kilkenny in Croke Park. Not a day of silverware, but a day of truth about the present and the future.

Anyone who remembers that game knows how good it was. Tipperary were the reigning All-Ireland champions, a team apparently destined for future success given the two exceptional young forwards they had recently unearthed in Eoin Kelly and Lar Corbett.

Kilkenny had won their first All-Ireland under Brian Cody in 2000 but Tipp had usurped them the following year and their clash in the 2002 semi-final was to be a crucial watermark as to what the years ahead held for both teams.

There had been hardly anything more than a point in it almost the whole way through until Jimmy Coogan goaled for Kilkenny in the second half to give the Cats a four-point lead.

It looked like Kilkenny would prevail from this most defining of encounters but as in all the great epics, there was a comeback and a Tipperary surge saw them get within one, with John O'Brien clipping over the point which left the minimum in it with just a few minutes left.

Who knows what would have happened had Tipp pushed on and got the next score? The year might have ended up with a different name on the Liam MacCarthy Cup than it ultimately did. Perhaps some of the years following would have too.

Shefflin explains why such questions are now mere historical 'what ifs'.

"Tipp had got within one and we had a puck-out," he says.

"It had been a great game and it was very tight. I caught the ball over Éamonn Corcoran (the Tipperary centre half back), turned for goal and managed to get a point out of it. It was at a really vital stage of the game. That one stands out from my career."

See the point by clicking here .

It has all happened before you realise it's happened. He rises to the puck out over the defender, and the same movement with which he catches the sliotar brings him to ground and propels him almost instantly towards the goal. A quick glance at the posts, a nanosecond of reflection, and left-handed he fires it over. Bang.

The point steadied Kilkenny, and dramatically halted the Tipperary fightback. Kilkenny added a few extra scores in the final two minutes, ultimately prevailing to the final on a scoreline of 1-20 to 1-16.

They went on to win the final against Clare, and have added six more All-Irelands in the years since, with Shefflin central to every triumph.

Tipperary had to wait until 2009 before they got to an All-Ireland final again, and until 2010 before they won one, a stark reminder of how fine the line can be sometimes in the quest for greatness.

For Henry Shefflin, there have been many great moments since that one, and probably plenty more to come. But that he can choose that five-second symphony over all the others so quickly, is the ultimate testament to its enduring significance.