Brian Corcoran ended 1992 as only the second Hurler of the Year to have won the accolade after a championship which fell short of All-Ireland success. The first had been Christy Ring. Already the comparisons were being made. Unfortunately for Corcoran, his arrival at senior coincided with the worst run the county had had in 35 years.

Throughout this fallow period, his standards didn't drop for long but they were denied the showcase of a successful team. That changed for good last year as he became a conventional Hurler of the Year - in the wake of All-Ireland success.

"He was the one Cork were looking to, their spiritual leader," according to Kilkenny's manager Brian Cody. "His main contribution was that he led the way."

If the eulogy is short on specifics, it echoes others. UCC academic John Considine is a current minor selector in Cork. He retired from the county full back line just as Corcoran came onto the senior inter-county scene. As a member of Sarsfields, the neighbouring club to Corcoran's Erin's Own, he has watched his developing career.

"Probably his main ability is to perform on the big day. He's had two years in Croke Park, his first season and last year and he's been hurler of the year both times," he says.

Michael McNamara is a former selector and trainer with Clare who had some success in trying to curb Corcoran's influence over the years. Again he identifies moral leadership as the principal factor.

"His big asset is the strength of mind with which he approaches matches, the complete confidence in his ability to be a leader. Particularly with young fellas all around him. He has been able to coax great performances out of them."

Briefly stated, his assets are physical strength, a command of his own airspace, excellent touch and marvellous, long striking ability. His reading of the game is intelligent and his concentration and temperament exemplary.

He is not particularly mobile (Cody disagrees slightly. "He's mobile enough. He might look slow, but he's a fierce stride, he gobbles up ground.") and sometimes leaves himself open to being hooked. This happened in one embarrassing vignette in last year's All-Ireland semi-final when John Troy pinched the sliotar off his marker's stick and drove a point. But that was John Troy. (Don't try this at home.)

"He's able to pull a ball down and put it back up the field so simply," says Considine. "He's there with the best of the modern era. DJ Carey, Brian Whelahan, Brian Corcoran and Brian Lohan have been the best I've seen."

Considine feels that Corcoran's less spectacular years were the result of trying to carry everyone else's burdens.

"I think he was asked to take on too much. They were trying to make a centre forward out of him for some of the time. He did fine, but compared to his performances at centre back there was no real choice. It's very hard to identify match-winning displays from centre forwards over the last number of years, but centre backs can dominate a game."

His parallel career as a footballer was blamed for some of the subdued form and, significantly or not, he retired from football last year. McNamara believes that duality does a hurler no favours.

"He was up to recently a dual player and the football training took away a lot of the sweetness in his hurling. Training methods in the two sports are completely different. Football's about stamina really, start to finish, but hurling comes in bursts."

Whereas his display against Clare in 1997 was excellent and a year later, he was so outnumbered as to be blameless for his lack of impact, Ger Loughnane's team always went to some trouble to curb his influence.

"From 1997, he was targeted by Clare and again in '98," according to Considine. "Whenever he got the ball, there were four or five hopping off him. Last year Niall Gilligan exposed him with a bit of pace but few hurlers have that sort of pace."

"Our approach was to try and pull him out of position," says McNamara. "Gilligan had the pace and PJ O'Connell's very mobile. We targeted their half backs to try and keep them moving and did it successfully for a while. When you come across someone like Brian Corcoran and go man-to-man with him it's a foregone conclusion you'll lose. He's physically strong, a superb tactical hurler and a great reader of the game."

Tomorrow will be Corcoran's first Munster final against Tipperary and he looks to be at the height of his powers for this necessary entry in the CV of a legend.