Legends: Brian Corcoran

The Bord Gáis Energy Legends Tour Series continues this weekend as former Cork dual player Brian Corcoran leads a behind the scenes tour of Croke Park Stadium on Saturday, August 9.

Interview: Brian Murphy

Corcoran leads the latest tour of the 2014 season and will be followed in the Bord Gáis Energy Legends Tour Series by Maurice Fitzgerald and Mickey Whelan, amongst others.

Although Corcoran was one of the greatest dual players the GAA has ever known, he will perhaps be best remembered for his extraordinary feats on the hurling field.

The Erin's Own clubman was a prodigious talent and played at midfield in an All-Ireland minor final aged just 15. He broke into the Cork senior team in 1992 at the age of 19 and was named Hurler of the Year in his first full season as a senior player.

Cork struggled while he was at the height of his powers in the 1990s, winning just one championship game in seven years in a period dominated by Clare and Limerick before the back door was introduced. However, with Corcoran a rock in the middle of their half-back line, the Rebels spectacularly landed the 1999 All-Ireland title under Jimmy Barry-Murphy. Corcoran had his first All-Ireland medal and was named the Hurler of the Year for the second time.

Corcoran retired from the game at the end of the 2001 season aged 28, but famously announced his comeback in 2004 and went on to land two more All-Ireland titles, in 2004 and 2005, in a new role as a full-forward.

He retired for good at the end of the 2006 season, with three Celtic Crosses, three All Stars and two Hurler of the Year awards, following one of the most remarkable careers the game has known.

"I have been watching hurling for the past 35 years or so, and I can say without hesitation, I have never seen better than Brian Corcoran," Jimmy Barry-Murphy said in a tribute on the front cover of Corcoran's autobiography Every Single Ball.

Corcoran also had a successful inter-county career with the Cork senior football team, playing in the 1993 All-Ireland final in his debut season. He won three Munster titles between 1993 and 1998, before deciding to focus fully on hurling.

In this exclusive interview with GAA.ie, Corcoran, one of the most respected and revered hurlers in modern times, takes us through a career that was extraordinary in its length and variety, and for the amount of success he enjoyed on the field of play.

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PRODIGY

I first played for the Cork minor team when I was 15. Actually, I turned them down when they asked me first. I won the Harty Cup that year (1988) with Midleton CBS so there was five or six of that team on the panel and I knew a lot of them. I wasn't that intimidated by playing because I had played minor with the club and Harty - I just didn't think I was old enough, basically.

I went to watch the first round game against Waterford and then a week after that we played Midleton in the club championship and I played well that day against one of the guys on the minor team. The selectors came back to me via my uncle and asked would I reconsider. I said yes to them a week before the Munster final so I played a challenge game, went to a few training sessions and I was picked midfield, which was a real surprise at the time because I hadn't been playing there. It gave me great freedom to move around the middle of the field. We played Tipp in the Munster final in Limerick and won pretty convincingly so it was a great start to my Cork career for me. We then beat Antrim in the semi-final, but came up against a great Kilkenny team in the final and unfortunately we went down. It was my first experience of playing in Croke Park and I really enjoyed it.

I was tall and strong for my age at the time, but at 15 I wouldn't have been as strong as the stronger 18-year-olds. But I was able to look after myself and I was always physically strong for my age so that was never really an issue. Physically, I wasn't hindered in any way being 15 versus 18 because I had started young - I played U12 when I was eight and U14 when I was 10. I was always used to playing against older guys so I felt that was par for the course.

A HURLING LIFE

Back then, we didn't have the distractions that kids have these days. It was literally a case that everywhere I went I had a hurley in my hand. I brought it to school and pucked around at lunch break. I never saw it as practice; it was fun. It was what we did. Three or four of us would be having a chat while hitting a ball. It was part of the social scene. At night time or at the weekends, we always had hurls out on the road. I never focused on practice in terms of working on individual skills; it was all about having fun. As a result, it was almost like a third hand or an extension of the arm.

There was an old house over the road from where we lived with broken-in windows and doors and we used to play games to see how many times you could go door/window/door/window. I always had a hurley with me but I would never have seen it as practice as such. We just did what we did. The only thing I ever saw as practice or training later in my career was running. The running was a necessity - you had to be fit - but anything to do with a hurley and a ball was love or passion. I never, even later in my career, saw that as work.

A CORK SENIOR

It was in 1991 that I first came across the radar of the Cork senior selectors, when I was still a minor. There was no back door system back then and we were beaten by Tipperary early in May and within a few weeks I was asked by Canon O'Brien to go and play for the seniors in a challenge game out in Mallow. I went along and they picked me centre-forward and I remember that I was on John Twomey from Dublin. I scored a goal and two or three points in what was my first real outing. They then pulled me onto the panel and all of a sudden they were playing Tipperary in the Munster final. I hadn't been on the panel before that so I was drafted in at the last minute. Then there was speculation that they were going to start me, but as it turned out they didn't play me and the game was drawn.

As it turned out, we were still in the Minor Football Championship so the replay of the senior game clashed with the Munster minor final. I made a decision to go to Killarney with the minors. At the time, I felt it was my last chance to win a medal with the minor footballers and I was sitting on the bench with the senior hurlers with more opportunities down the road, so I decided to go with the minor footballers. As it worked out, it was a good decision because the minors won and the seniors lost and we went on and won the All-Ireland that year.

It was fairly intimidating for me to be brought into the senior panel as a minor in 1991, which is unusual. I had my doubts. 'Am I good enough for this? Do these fellas believe I am good enough to be here?' At that time there was three rounds of the league played before Christmas so by the time I had those played, as well as a few games in the spring of 1992, I felt I was established at that stage. But the summer before, I was intimidated when I first went in for the same reasons that I turned down the offer to play minor the first time.

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IN DEMAND

There was definitely a lot of pulling and dragging in various directions, but I learned fairly early on to be the master of my own destiny. In 1990, I was pulled into doing something I didn't want to do or wasn't comfortable doing and ended up missing out on an All-Ireland final replay as a result. I learned from that. I missed the club senior championship with a broken finger so I was eligible to play in the Junior B championship. It was a week before the All-Ireland minor final drawn game and a week before the replay and I went to play it and damaged ankle ligaments. I didn't want to play because it was the week before an All-Ireland final and I was pressurised, told 'Ah, the club needs you.' I did it and regretted it and that was the last time I was coaxed into doing something I didn't want to do. I developed a thicker neck after that.

When I was a minor, I was playing on the Cork minor hurling and football teams, both county U21 teams, the senior hurling panel, college teams and minor, U21 and senior in both codes at club level. I was on 14 or 15 teams at one stage. The reality is that each manager is looking after one team and their primary concern is for themselves. Some managers will watch out for you, but I did come across some guys whose only concern was for you turning up and performing for his team - it didn't really matter if you had a played a game that morning or the night before. That's where I think young guys these days need to be taken care of a little better. I was probably strong enough to say no, but other people who might be influenced more might be pulled and dragged. It all takes its toll, mentally as much as physically and that's probably ultimately what led to me retiring earlier than I should have the first time.

IN THE SPOTLIGHT

My mother used to keep albums of all the articles that used to be in the paper and I came across one recently up in the attic. There were lots of articles written about me in 1992 so there was a good bit of media exposure. I never saw that as pressure because out on the field I was doing what I wanted to do and that's where I felt most comfortable. I felt more comfortable playing in front of big crowds than I did in front of a journalist. Would I have swapped the Hurler of the Year, the All Star and all that focus for an All-Ireland medal in 1992? Absolutely. I felt at the end of the year that while it was great to make the breakthrough onto the team and to get the awards, but ultimately I didn't get that All-Ireland medal. When I started to play I always wanted to win an All-Ireland and it never occurred to me to win the Player of the Year or anything.

LOST YEARS

I wouldn't say I regretted the barren years we had with Cork in the 1990s because regret is something you have control over. I would have loved if it was different because between 1993 and 1995 we lost big championship games the week I was doing my exams and we were out of the championship. When I had finished my exams, I had the summer free and yet we were out of the championship. They would have been potentially some of my better years and I didn't get to play any hurling really other than with the club. If there was back door back then it would have been great. I'm not saying we would have won All-Irelands, but we were beaten by Limerick in '94 and in '95 Clare caught us at the last minute. I think we would have seen Croke Park a few times in those years with a back door. Winning one championship game against Kerry in a 5 or 6 year period was fairly demoralising.

Do I regret it? I can't because I had no control over it. But if I could have changed it I certainly would. To train for nine months for 70 minutes was crazy. When I retired back in 2001, that's what happened - I trained harder than I ever have for nine months and lost one game against Limerick and it was all over. At that point I was saying, 'this is not worth it'.

A DUAL PLAYER

I always played football because I came from a hurling and football club - even though we were predominantly a hurling club. I had always played from nine or 10 years of age, I played with the Cork minors for a few years and won an All-Ireland in 1991. I wouldn't say I had the same feeling for football as I had for hurling, but I wasn't doing it for the sake of it. I wanted to win, basically. When Billy Morgan asked me on to the panel in 1993 I said no initially to concentrate on hurling, but we had an early exit against Clare and he came back to me when I had the whole summer ahead of me with nothing to do so when he came calling again I said, 'what have I got to lose?'

I did it for a number of years and I lost an All-Ireland in 1993, but the problem I had is where I used to be played. Growing up, I was a centre-back or centre-forward and was centre-forward on the Cork minor team at centre-forward. The following year in 1991 the coach rang me a few weeks before the first round of the championship. 'We're really stuck for a full-back and we think you could do well,' he said. 'Will you try it?' I had never played there in my life. I tried it and it went well and then Billy Morgan saw me as a full-back/corner back, and corner back in football was my most hated position. I absolutely detested it. Unfortunately, that's where I ended up. I never enjoyed playing there because I wasn't a man-marker and I saw myself as more of a ball player.

I did it for a few years, but in 1998 I more or less played hurling the whole time and Billy asked me to come back and play football. The week before we played Kerry, I had literally played one game and two training sessions and they were the only times I had kicked a football in three or four months. All of a sudden I was on the team down in Killarney and that didn't go well. I was totally out of sorts. After that, I thought this dual thing isn't really working. I also felt the hurling was getting stronger because we won the Allianz League in 1998 and went down against Clare but felt we should have done better. Fellas were at me to commit to hurling, and as I walked out of Killarney that day I decided I had had enough. It was coincidental that it paid off the next year when we ended up winning the hurling All-Ireland. It made me feel like the decision was vindicated.

WALKING AWAY

Winning the 1999 All-Ireland under Jimmy Barry-Murphy was great obviously. In 2000 I had some injuries and played an All-Ireland semi-final against Offaly when I wasn't fit and it showed on the day. Coming out of Croke Park that day I was bitterly disappointed and I promised myself I would never play a game again unfit. I trained harder than I had ever trained in the winter - there were times when I had let myself go a little in the past and put on a bit of weight and turned up in January unfit - and I showed up in January 2001 fitter than I ever had been at that time of the year. We played a challenge game against UCC and I broke a finger and it knocked me a little bit. When I got back, just a week before the championship game against Limerick I broke a finger again and I didn't start. I came on at the start of the second half and we lost a game we could have won by a point. Having trained so hard for the nine months the season was over for me. I was sick coming out of Páirc Uí Chaoimh that day. I said to myself, 'It's just not worth it'.

At that time as well, my first daughter was born and my mother had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. There were a few personal things going on where I was going training three or four nights a week when I really wanted to spend that time with my family. I wouldn't say I fell out of love with hurling but I came to the conclusion that it wasn't worth the sacrifice any more. There were other things I wanted to prioritise. I made the decision pretty quickly but I didn't tell people until after the club championship. I was quite comfortable with that decision and I felt it was the right thing for me and I still believe that. I have no regrets about walking away at that point.

COMEBACK

If I had played on in 2002 and 2003 I would have been gone by 2004. When I was out I never missed it and never regretted it. I was sitting up in the stand watching the 2003 All-Ireland final and was quite comfortable with the decision I had made. I had no desire to be playing, but things evolved and changed very quickly. I called in to see the team in the Citywest after the game and I saw how much it hurt the players. Within a couple of days of the All-Ireland final I made a decision to try and get back. Again, it wasn't necessarily for the love of the game, or that I missed the training or the hard slog, it was really that I thought Cork had a great chance of winning the All-Ireland and maybe I could put my shoulder to the wheel.

I never felt pressure. People tried to talk me out of it and told me I was crazy. Growing up, I always preferred to play in the forwards, but in Midleton CBS they believed I was a defender. At U12 and U14 I was midfield and a scoring midfielder so I always fancied myself as a forward, but as I got older people started to play me in defence. One of the main reasons I wanted to play full-forward was that I was concerned that I might not get back to the fitness level required to play in defence, where you are chasing markers. As a forward you are in control. I felt that I never got the chance to play there as a forward even though that's where I always wanted to play. It was a new challenge. Could I actually do this? I had no desire to go back and play in defence so when Donal O'Grady came calling, I said that while I understood that there was no guarantee of making the team, I asked that he consider me as a forward. He agreed.

At that point, I was reinvigorated because I was living the dream again, playing in the position that I wanted to play in. I got lucky as well because in 2003 Setanta Ó hAilpín and Alan Browne were around, but by the time I had come back Setanta was gone to Australia and Alan Browne was retired. All of a sudden, there were vacancies, even though I would loved the opportunity to play with Setanta. That helped my cause in terms of places opening up.

FAIRYTALE ENDING

Realistically, it outdid my expectations. I believed that Cork were going to win the All-Ireland in 2004, and that was the reason I went back. I was convinced Cork were going to win and that I could play some part in that. When I decided to go back, it was a reality to me that maybe I wasn't going to make the panel or maybe I was going to make the bench and not the team. But I was willing to do that, to be an impact sub or just to make some difference. From that point of view, it wasn't a case that if I didn't make the team it was a disaster. If it hadn't worked out, I wouldn't have seen it as a big shame. I felt there was nothing to lose.

But to come back out of retirement to win two All-Irelands, an All Star and a county championship outdid my expectations for the three years. Having said that, you always think about what might have been and obviously we lost out on the three-in-a-row in 2006. When I look back on it, though, being realistic I played for 10 or 11 years and won one All-Ireland and to go back to win all that in three years was fantastic. It was kind of fairytale stuff really.

LIFE AFTER HURLING

I have lots of things going on in my life. I have a family and I am busy with work. I always loved playing but I was never a great spectator. I watch the games on TV. I was supposed to be going to the Tipperary match on Sunday, but I found out yesterday I have to fly to America on Sunday morning with work. My own preference usually is to go for a game of golf on a Sunday morning and to watch the match on TV. I went to the All-Ireland finals last year and it was great but I couldn't see myself heading to Croke Park every week. Being able to live my own life is what suits me.

In terms of coaching, I am involved a little bit at underage level with the club. Over the years I have been asked to get involved in coaching teams, but I just don't have the time for it really and the reality is that I don't have a huge desire for it either. I loved playing; watching I can take or leave it. In terms of coaching, I'll never say never but right now it's not really on my radar.

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The Bord Gáis Energy Legends Tour with Brian Corcoran takes place this Saturday, August 16, at 2pm at Croke Park. Admission includes a visit to the recently-refurbished GAA Museum, which is home to many exclusive exhibits, including the original Sam Maguire Cup, first presented to Kildare in 1928.

For further information and booking:

GAA Museum, Tel 01 819 2323E: tours@crokepark.ie or check out www.crokepark.ie/gaa-museum Prices for the Legends Tours are as follows:Adult EUR15, Child EUR9.50, Student (Under 16) and Senior EUR10.50, Family (2+2) EUR40.00

Other Legend Tours which will follow in the 2014 series include Mickey Whelan and Maurice Fitzgerald.

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