GAELIC GAMES:It's been a long road to success for the Cork defender who has had to channel his fiery
competitiveness on the field, writes KEITH DUGGAN

DURING CORK’S recent National League win against Galway, Noel O’Leary stopped on the side of the field in Salthill and talked about what Cork needed to do to improve. It had been a so-so afternoon for the All-Ireland champions: they had resisted a spirited Galway rally to win but had also lost Colm O’Neill, their talented young forward.

It wasn’t what O’Leary said that was important so much as the fact it echoed what his manager, Conor Counihan, was also telling reporters at the entrance to the tunnel. It was as if player and manager were reading from the same script and the moment emphasised just how far O’Leary has travelled in his colourful years as a Rebel defender.

“That man deserves more credit than anyone else here,” O’Leary said of Counihan the day after Cork won the All-Ireland final. For O’Leary, the elusive senior medal came a full decade after his minor triumph under Teddy Holland. Sandwiched in between were some highlights – three Munster medals – and sufficient disciplinary problems for O’Leary to find himself labelled as a firebrand.

His relationship with Kerry’s Paul Galvin threatened, at one point, to become almost comically volatile – the pair seemed incapable of wandering into one another’s vicinity without expressing their mutual antipathy. When both men were sent off 25 minutes into the 2009 Munster semi-final replay, O’Leary later admitted he feared he might have burnt his bridges with Counihan and that the manager would lose patience with him. But Counihan persevered and not only gave O’Leary consistent starts in what is a notoriously deep Cork half-back squad, he trusted him with what was the crucial role in Cork’s All-Ireland final game plan the next September.

O’Leary is noted as a fierce defender but his direct attacking style is also a strong element of his game. In shadowing Marty Clarke, Down’s playmaker, in last year’s All-Ireland final, he sacrificed both elements of his game for the greater good of the team. O’Leary did not try to outmuscle or outthink Clarke; instead, he did as much as he could to shepherd them both into anonymity for as much of the match as possible.

It was a role which not only required a strong team ethic but a degree of discipline which O’Leary’s detractors would hardly have credited him for. The extent of his block-out job may have been overstated and afterwards, O’Leary himself made light of his role, agreeing Cork just wanted to guide Clarke towards the wings rather than the centre of play. But it demonstrated just how far he has travelled and he has become one of the leaders for Cork.

“Noel plays the game on the edge,” says Down manager James McCartan, who acknowledged Cork’s supremacy when the teams met in the league again this February. “Sometimes that can boil over and he has got a red card here and there. But whenever he manages to stay on the right side of it, there is no doubt he is very influential to Cork. He is a big-day player and he has toiled for many years and he got his just rewards last September.”

It has been a long time coming. The first national sighting of O’Leary’s potential was on the Cork minor team of 2000 on which James Masters and John Hayes also played. He broke into the senior ranks during a tumultuous period for Cork football, making his championship debut on the infamous day when Limerick hammered the Rebels by 0-16 to 0-6 in Paírc Uí Chaoimh. That was not even the nadir: the next summer, they exited from the qualifiers in Croke Park after playing second fiddle to Fermanagh.

By the time Cork began to assemble its glittering under-21 teams into a cohesive senior unit, O’Leary found himself bouncing in and out of the half-back line. Competition was fierce and so was his reputation. O’Leary’s intensity and commitment was never in question but his temperament was considered borderline. He went through one league season picking up a yellow card per game. A rash challenge on Graham Geraghty might have cost him his place in the 2007 All-Ireland final against Kerry.

Two summers later came his flashpoint with Galvin in the Munster semi-final replay. O’Leary had come in as a substitute shortly before – it was hardly the impression he wanted to make. That he had seven years of mostly chastening experience at senior level did nothing to affect the wholeheartedness of his contribution. And, as is often the case, the simple tag of hothead did not fully explain O’Leary.

Before that 2008 semi-final against Meath he sat down with Kieran Shannon of the Sunday Tribune and, in a startlingly honest interview, spoke about two tragic deaths that shaped his formative years – the deaths through suicide of his brother and his cousin. And the disciplinary record he acquired with Cork was at variance with his reputation in his home club of Kilnamartyra, where, as the crucial player, he was considered to be a force for calm.

With the county, though, it has always been slightly different. Before Cork met Tyrone in the 2009 All-Ireland semi-final, O’Leary spoke about the on-going quest to transform the disappointments of the previous years into something positive.

“We would feel that we have put down a tough four or five years and that we know each other inside out,” he said then.

“It is a matter of believing in ourselves like Tyrone have done. We are under no illusions about what is in front of us. Tyrone are a good team. They play a different style to a normal footballing team. It is going to be a huge battle the next day. They play on the edge and you have to admire them for that. There is no doubt; you would be scratching your head at a lot of things they do. But that is the way they play and you have to aspire to that as well. You can’t forget the past in many ways. But the past is the past and this is the here and now.”

That year, Cork would fall at the final hurdle again. They had to wait another 12 months before it all fell into place, starting with last year’s league title that led to the All-Ireland title. Even that was achieved the hard way: O’Leary was substituted for John Miskella in the drawn match against Kerry and scored a point in the replay defeat. He was a constant presence in the team through Cork’s convincing All-Ireland series and responded to Counihan’s direction against Down with a selfless and utterly disciplined display. Afterwards, like most of the Cork seniors, he expressed relief more than euphoria at the fact Cork had got there, in the end.

In the weeks of celebration that followed, O’Leary demonstrated his willingness to sing a ballad at the drop of a hat but his working days are spent in relative solitude; he works in the obscure and demanding world of tree surgery and has admitted there is nowhere better to clear his head before big games than high up in the branches. His league began in less than encouraging fashion. He was sent off in Killarney along with Kerry’s Barry John Keane for an off-the-ball incident which most people in attendance appeared to miss.

It made for a familiar sight; the Kilnamartyra man walking away head down to the sound of Kerry delight. With O’Leary, that volatility is inseparable from the energy and the momentum that he brings to Cork. But at 29, the chances are that he will be at its mercy less and less until those flashpoints are all but eliminated from his game. The furious energy which he brings to the Cork back division though, will remain as bright as ever.

Noel O'Leary

Age: 28 (born May 5th, 1982)

Height: 5ft 11ins

Occupation: Tree surgeon

Club: Kilnamartyra

Championship debut: v Limerick 2003.

Position: Right-half back.

Honours: All-Ireland MFC 2000, Munster Under-21 FC 2001, Munster SFC 2006, 2008, 2009, All-Ireland SFC 2011.