Mulcahy chosen to captain Cork

News: Pat Mulcahy has been chosen to lead Cork's quest for a third successive All-Ireland hurling title.

Newtownshandrum have nominated the experienced defender as Cork captain for the 2006 season, as is their right as county hurling champions, which means Mulcahy will take over the honour from Seán Óg Ó hAilpín.

The other candidates for the position were Newtownshandrum's two other Cork representatives, Ben O'Connor and his twin, Jerry.

Ben, however, had already captained Cork to their 2004 All-Ireland success, and it is understood they were both pressing for Mulcahy's nomination this time.

The captaincy thus represents another remarkable chapter in Mulcahy's recent comeback as an intercounty hurler. Now aged 30, his career looked to be under threat in early 2004 when he suffered serious injury in a car accident.

That was just weeks after Newtownshandrum had won their first All-Ireland club hurling title, beating Dunloy of Antrim, and Mulcahy was in fact travelling back from the funeral of one of the Dunloy players who had died tragically a short time afterwards.

Mulcahy's injuries meant he missed all of Cork's All-Ireland winning summer of 2004.

As a result, it seemed unlikely that he recover his place in the Cork full back line, with the young Brian Murphy soon proving his worth alongside Wayne Sherlock and Diarmuid O'Sullivan.

Early in last year's season, however, Sherlock was struggling with a groin injury and that gave Mulcahy his chance to reacquaint himself with top-level hurling, and also new manager John Allen.

Mulcahy didn't let that chance slip, and come the summer he was first-choice corner back again along with Murphy, a position he held right through Cork's successful championship campaign.

His consistency and frequently dazzling displays in the position also helped to earn him his first All Star. His ball skills and vision, coupled with his mental resolve, helped the Cork defence hold out on several of the more testing occasions last summer.

"We've decided on Pat Mulcahy as our club nomination," confirmed Newtownshandrum secretary Pat Guiney. "He's agreed to accept it and we're delighted he has."

Mulcahy has yet to rejoin the Cork panel this year as, like the O'Connor twins, he is preparing for Newtownshandrum's All-Ireland club semi-final later this month.

Although he is one of the oldest members of the current Cork panel, with only Brian Corcoran older at 32, there is no reason to believe Mulcahy can't hold down a starting place throughout the 2006 campaign, or that he won't remain a first-choice corner back.

He did still claim an All-Ireland medal in 2004 as a panel member, and following last year's win he now has two senior medals and two Munster title medals to go with his two Munster club and one All-Ireland club medals.

The Cork captaincy does bring added pressure, however, with Ó hAilpín recently admitting that the 2005 season was particularly straining because of the added duties.

Yet Mulcahy now finds himself in a position to join the select few hurling men who have captained teams to a third successive All-Ireland success.

Cork remain the last team to pull off three successive titles, from 1976-'78, when Charlie McCarthy of the St Finbarr's club had the honour of raising the Liam MacCarthy Cup for the third time - in what was his fifth winning final.

Before that, it was the great Christy Ring who captained Cork's previous three-in-a-row side, which they won from 1952-1954.