Corcoran looks forward as it all comes back

All-Ireland SHC Final: Brian Corcoran tells Seán Moran why he stopped playing, why he's back, and why he's full forward.

Last September, on the evening of the All-Ireland hurling final Brian Corcoran was in a strange position. Close enough to the players who had been his team-mates to share their racking sense of disappointment, he was still at a distance because of his retirement nearly two years previously.

Adding to his sense of discomfort was the constant attention of a supporter nagging him to come back out of retirement. "At that stage," he remembers, "I was adamant and would have put my house on not coming back. I had no regrets last year after a good, long summer with my family and having played a lot of golf."

Times change, however, and next weekend the twice Hurler of the Year will have a more familiar perspective for the county's third All-Ireland in six years with ancient rivals Kilkenny. Not totally familiar because his second coming is at full forward rather than in the defence where he became one of the best backs of the 1990s.

His retirement came as a shock in late 2001. Still only 28, Corcoran became the embodiment of burn-out, a supremely gifted dual player from an early age whose mind and body had had enough. He even disengaged from his club Erin's Own.

"I gave up because I wasn't enjoying it and if I'd kept playing the enjoyment would have been well and truly killed. The two and a half or three years that I was out allowed the fire to start growing again.

"The training had become a slog. I remember getting up for work in the morning and dreading training that night. Maybe I was doing too much, but it was becoming drudgery.

"Even the games - the style of hurling had changed and as a centre back you felt that someone was marking you rather than you marking them.

"You'd find yourself going out in club games and even intercounty games and you'd find yourself chasing somebody and you're not near the ball. You're out there for 60 or 70 minutes and you come in, not having pucked a ball. It's frustrating.

"I've two young daughters. When I was in my last year playing hurling I nearly preferred going to play golf rather than going training. I knew when it came to that, something was wrong.

"There's no point going out half-hearted if you're marking some 19-year old who's out to make a name for himself and who has the hunger of a lion. If you're not hungry yourself you're wasting your time."

If the departure was a surprise, so was the return. The desire to play again was initially triggered by moving house back into his home parish and into the orbit of Erin's Own. Nothing was planned or taken for granted. Try it and see.

"I made the decision to play in the forwards at the club because physically I didn't think I'd be fit enough to chase young fellas around the place. On the edge of the square I felt I wouldn't have to be as physically fit.

"As it turned out, when Donal (O'Grady, Cork manager) approached me, he said that it was for the forwards. I said that the mind was willing, but I didn't know if the body was able."

Bit by bit the rehabilitation proceeded. From cold spring nights under floodlights and the equally insistent glare of the media, Corcoran hurled for the club and found it hard going. Even the most sympathetic observers weren't convinced.

Despite the circumstances, expectations were high. With the loss of Setanta Ó hAilpín and Alan Browne, the full-forward line lacked physique. Cork followers yearned for the gifted veteran to fill that void and do so spectacularly. The player himself offered no guarantees, but was willing to give it a go.

"The main difference is that the training has changed," he recalls. "In my last couple of years we were doing a lot of running in the tunnel at Páirc Uí Chaoimh whereas now the training's more focused on the position you're playing on the pitch. Horses for courses.

"There was a time when everybody did the exact same training, whereas now the full-forward line is picked out for certain types of training and every night you've two masseurs at training and a full-time physio. It's a more professional approach.

"The first person you check with every night if you've any sort of a niggle is the physio. Traditionally, you needed a big excuse not to train. These days you nearly have to have an excuse to train. If there's any doubt or tiny ailment they won't leave you train."

On the field his touch was only slowly rediscovered. In the championship he was initially introduced as a replacement but by the Munster final he started and played well as long as the supply was flowing.

But it was the Tipperary match in the qualifier series that in Corcoran's own words was "key". It was also his best performance, an authoritative and imposing display on the highly regarded Philip Maher.

Sunday will be a new challenge. Noel Hickey was dominant in last year's final and apart from two goals against Antrim Corcoran hasn't been prolific. But at least he'll be there and, he says, more relaxed than 12 months ago.

"Even when I retired I knew that if you could put me out in Croke Park every September for an All-Ireland final without having to train for the previous 12 months, well any hurler would take that. But I was definitely more nervous last year than before any match I played."

Club: Erin's Own

Age: 31

Occupation: Computer analyst

Honours: One All-Ireland

Two Munster

Twice Hurler of the Year

Two National Hurling

League

Three Munster Senior Football