Patrick Horgan gives strongest indication yet on his Cork future
Faster than ever, the Championship's highest scorer reveals how much goes into playing the game at this level and what he loves most about it.
Patrick Horgan says he would love to play for Cork next year.
The 36 year old - the highest scorer in Championship history - was speaking to William Hill’s ‘Square Ball’ podcast.
Horgan suffered the disappointment of losing a third All-Ireland final a few weeks back, when Clare edged Cork out at the end of a thrilling decider.
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Asked if he intended to return next year for an 18th season with Cork, the Glen Rovers man said: “I would say so. Only for my hamstring, I feel great.
“The last time I said I’d be back I got slated from some paper that said it wasn’t up to me, it was up to the manager.
“I’d love to. It’s just how things work out between now and then. I don’t know with my leg or whatever like that.”
Horgan revealed on the podcast that he had hit his top speed ever in the training session where he pulled a hamstring a week out from the final.
Cork have been using GPS systems for over a decade: “I think about it so much, my position and what I need in it. If I am good at four or five things that’s all I need.
“Certain moves. Timing, quick acceleration. You don’t have to be fast at your top speed, but taking off it just gives you more space.
“If your timing is right with the yard it’s very hard for a defender to come in around you because if they dive at that point they are open enough. I am going after those things for a good few years now.”
Horgan says he wouldn’t have finished up had Cork won the All-Ireland: “Why would that be the finish point winning that when I could say go on again and enjoy myself again?
“I’d love to have gone back and be part of it as a group. The group are all unreal. They are all driven to be better all the time, whether it’s in the gym, anything. It’s all competitive and it’s great.”
He continued: “I feel like sometimes people outside don’t understand it. So, you have a bond with your team - and you are at training, what you are trying to do,
“Sometimes I think people don’t understand actually how much is going in. It’s a 24 hour thing. It’s being on to each other about what you are eating, what are you doing, what are you taking, whatever. There is so much goes into it.
“When you come out of that obviously I don't know what it’s like yet. I can imagine it’s a very strange place. You are after putting 17, 18 years of your life into it, everything. Every time you pick up something to eat it, you are thinking of the sport.
“Every time you think, ‘Oh it’s gone 11 o’clock, what am I going to do now? I am not going to get my sleep.’
“Everything you basically do revolves around your playing. When you come out of it, there is going to be a bit of a hole there. How are you going to deal with that?”
Speaking about Robbie O’Flynn’s late chance to send the All-Ireland final to a replay, which wasn’t pulled back for a free by referee Johnny Murphy, despite a jersey pull, Hogan said:
“Obviously they (referees) have a really, really hard job to do as the game is so fast. One puck of the ball and you are one goalkeeper to the other and that’s a big distance.
“I thought it was a great game and he (Murphy) done the best he could.
“I just found the last decision, as we all saw, and I am not going to blame anyone - we lost the game and Clare deserved to win - you look at it and say well he did get pulled.
“We’d say he got pulled. He did a great job overall and Clare obviously deserved everything they got.”
Horgan says he spoke to Limerick whistler Murphy at the time: “There was no aggression or anything like that. I just asked him did you not see that, and he didn’t, he obviously didn’t….
“It’s an easy one to give but he didn’t see it and that’s fair enough. That’s the way it kind of goes sometimes. But there’s a lot of other decisions in the game but that one alone kind of finishes the game.”
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