01 Ol’ Blue Noel Hickey on the heart Eyes of it all Kieran ‘Fraggie’ Murphy on the Cork drive to survive Frank Cody on Brian Cody’s early manhood Leo McGough on the princes of position 02 To see a story now, Crossed lines: TJ just click Reid (Kilkenny) on it battles with Jerry Contents O’Connor (Cork) in the All-Ireland SHC Noel Hickey PM O’Sullivan semi-final at Croke Park, Dublin on Cork-Kilkenny Pat Donegan August 10, 2008 Picture: John McIlwaine Cork-Kilkenny PM O’Sullivan Kieran Murphy Sinéad Ryan FRONT COVER The eyes have it: Cartoon Tom Dack Noel Hickey at St James’s Gate Brian Cody Frank Cody Brewery, Dublin on June 22, 2010 Picture: David Maher/ ‘Hurling By Leo SPORTSFILE Numbers’ McGough Minors Pat Treacy Everything can be measured, even chilli peppers, for which time. Today, Dónal Óg Cusack carps about Henry Shefflin ‘Season’s Meetings’ Murt Flynn there is the Scoville scale to measure heat, all the way from because he is not forthright enough in interviews. mildest pimento to blistering Dorset naga. There is an element of crossed lines to this tangle. Cork Poc Fada Shay Larkin This weekend, hurling could do with an equivalent supposedly represent modernity and matters forward. Part instrument. Previews of the Cork-Kilkenny semi-final of the bitterness is that Kilkenny supposedly did not put Augusta-Orlando Alex Yearwood cannot but mention obvious bitterness between the two their shoulders to the GPA wheel. panels. Exchanges on GAA websites spool this antipathy. Hurlers cannot disinvent their own tradition. Dating ‘Backspin’ PM O’Sullivan I have a theory on why Kilkenny’s current success has from Paddy Grace’s appointment in the 1940s as County so grigged Cork. Tipperary, with whom the stripy men Board Secretary, Noreside culture has centred on ‘looking traditionally wind a far more intense rivalry, feel their time after’ its panels. is coming. Tipp believe their current personnel will take This influence left a durable legacy. Paddy Buggy once three or four All-Irelands over this decade. said to me of Paddy Grace: “He was a great man to go out However galling it is to watch the auld enemy stack to a man under a cow. He’d have the problem solved before Volume 1, Number 10 (August 2010) unprecedented honours, the spectacle cannot last forever. the cow was milked.” Once it crumbles, they will be there to pick up the pieces. Milk-based drinks, such as lassi, are the only yoke for hot PM O’SULLIVAN (Editor) Pronto. food. MURT FLYNN (Deputy Editor) So one narrative goes, frustration edged with hope. BRENDAN TOBIN (Design) Invert the scenario for a Rebel sense of things, frustration streaked with regret. Comment and submissions: Cork feel their time has come and gone. Scant talent [email protected] on the way up, no underage glory since 2001… Leeside reckons it threw up the chance to add more Senior titles while the men were there to take them. Sponsored by... All a pity. The Cork-Kilkenny tradition, founded on a PM O’Sullivan remarkable series of matches in the mid 1900s, has long 5 August, 2010 been one of mutual respect for each other’s artistry. To register for your free copy, please The old Kilkenny players were quick to say that sign up at www.sliotarmagazine.com Dungourney’s Jamesy Kelleher was the best man of their 2 03 Eye of the calm Noel Hickey tells PM O’Sullivan about his gratitude that hurling was not taken away from him and his determination to keep going for as long as possible Noel Hickey has these remarkable Sinatra eyes, that demented but it is the Kilkenny shade of grey desperate to be blue. way. Farming is his thing but poker could be a million. Noel Hickey the hurler There will never be a tell in Hickey’s default expression. has never received sufficient His still, piercing gaze makes for easy stereotype, credit. Everyone recognizes Hickey as a man of honour, Tony Soprano’s candidate his qualities as a defender but from out of town to vanish a problem. how many players can let off a Appearances deceive. Quick to enjoy a joke, affable clearance 60 yards over either out, Noel Hickey proves easy company. shoulder while running full “The wet day is a good day for writers,” he laughs. pelt towards their own goal? PM O’Sullivan Three times a Minor: Canice Hickey in action Rain brings this farmer to a Kilkenny hotel mid Very few – but Hickey can. for Dunnamaggin Picture: Eoin Hennessy Photography afternoon, ten days before another go with Cork. Unusually enough for an intercounty hurler, he likes to chat about the game as if he were any other punter. The subplots of personality, the sound lads, the choice pains: all are of interest. The obsession with withdrawing men out the field makes him wry: “That craic doesn’t really work at all. If you’re going to put up any kind of a score, you have to go man for man in the forwards.” Noel Hickey’s level brilliance is perfect embodiment for a county lacking the drama of mountains. Interviewed on The Sunday Game after the 2007 All- Ireland Final, DETAILS he said it all Date of birth: December 22, 1980 First among by saying equals: Noel Height: 5’ 10” n o t h i n g : Hickey, John Weight: 13 stone 10 pounds “We’re happy Gardiner and County: Kilkenny e n o u g h . ” Ken McGrath Club: Dunnamaggin (l-r) at St The refusal James’s Gate School: Callan CBS to lose your Brewery, College: Kildalton Agricultural excitement Dublin on College drives some June 22, 2010 Occupation: Farmer Picture: David Maher/ c o u n t i e s SPORTSFILE 3 04 Sweetest success: Noel Hickey is congratulated by John Lyng (father of Derek) after the 2006 All-Ireland SHC Final Picture: Ray McManus/ SPORTSFILE His supposedly ‘tough’ attributes have been “People like a myth.” Met, he is the epitome of calm, a sort of zen to him. overstated. There is little of The Sopranos there either. Realistically, the charge list runs no further than He inspires confidence and it is easy to see why Hickey He does not get involved in off the ball stuff. For some a flake at Eoin Brislane in the 2003 League Final and is a goalkeeper’s favourite. in Kilkenny, Noel Hickey was not sufficiently cynical a swipe at Mike Fitzgerald in September 2007. For Rain is a clock. There is the hurling season, the when marking DJ Carey in County finals. a man now in his 11th season with Kilkenny, it is an farmer’s year. Long since, he has relished the splice. “I let all that in one ear and out the other,” he smiles. admirable roster. There was never any doubt he would go this path. 4 05 HONOURS 7 All-Ireland SHC (2000, 2002-03, 2006-09) 9 Leinster SHC (2000-03, 2005-09) 5 NHL (2002-03, 2005-06, 2009) 3 All-Stars (2000, 2003, 2008) 1 Young Hurler of the Year (2000) 2 Railway Cup (2002-03) 1 All-Ireland U21HC (1999) 1 Leinster U21HC (1999) 2 Leinster MHC (1997-98) 1 Kilkenny SHC (1997) 1 Kilkenny IHC (2000) 3 Kilkenny U21HC A (1996, 1998-99) 2 Kilkenny MHC A (1995, 1998) 1 Agricultural Colleges All-Ireland SHC (1999) 1 Leinster Colleges SHC A (1998) at home as well, it’s a great help. If you were on your own, you could get caught at times.” Not that he is one of those hurlers who makes the choice sound a burden. “The hurling is a great outlet,” he states. “With the farming, especially with the tillage, you can be on your own a lot. So it’s great to go in and meet up with the lads and that. “To be honest, when you finish up – in September with the county if you’re lucky, in October with the club – you’d be at a bit of a loose end.” Noel Hickey is one of the finest full-backs of all time but had to survive severe setback. First came an Certain clearance: Noel Hickey (Kilkenny) eludes Brian Corcoran (Cork) in the All-Ireland SHC enforced layoff in the middle of the last decade. Since Final at Croke Park, Dublin on September 3, 2006 Picture: Eoin Hennessy Photography he came back for 2006, Kilkenny have not lost in the championship. The Monday before he captained the Kilkenny U21s As Noel reveals, illness prompted reassessment: to victory in the 1999 All-Ireland Final, he started at “When I had the knockout in ’05, with the virus of the Kildalton Agricultural College in Piltown. “That craic doesn’t really heart, there was never any question in my mind but “I was always out and about on the farm at home,” that I was going to come back. I was 24 at the time. he recalls. “Just enjoyed it, really. Nothing else ever work at all. If you’re going When it does happen, you realize it can be taken away came into my mind. It was a natural progression along. from you at any time. I was happy doing it, and I still am.” to put up any kind of a “When I came back the following year, I was more He farms a large holding around Danganmore in determined than ever to make every year count, South Kilkenny, himself the tillage end, eldest brother score, you have to go man because you never know what’s around the corner.