FROM BACK TO FRONT CORCORAN SHOWCASED SUPREME TALENT
FROM corner-back to centre-back to full-forward – very few hurlers could make it work even at club level, let alone at the top end of the inter-county game.
Brian Corcoran not only managed it, but did it so well that he has All Stars to show for his efforts in all three positions. It’s that adaptability that earns him Munster’s top rating.
He is also among the small group of players who won the Hurler of the Year award more than once, having been selected as a 19-year-old in his debut season at corner-back in 1992 and again in 1999 after an outstanding campaign at centre-back. A year later, he was chosen at left cornerback on the Cork team of the Millennium.
His second coming after a period in retirement took him into attack, a powerful addition that took Cork from All-Ireland contenders in 2003 to double winners in 20042005.
Nicky English’s finishing skills earns him the No 2 slot after a career
which
saw him prosper in bad and good times, first as the brightest attacking star on a struggling team before the 1987 breakthrough and later as the main threat on the All-Ireland winning teams of 1989 and 1991.
Ken McGrath is the only man in the top ten without an All-Ireland medal but that in no way takes away from his status as one of hurling’s great all-rounders, having played in all five outfield lines at various stages.
Seánie McMahon (3) and Brian Lohan (6) fly the Clare flag in the top ten, having done so much as the central pillars of the defence on the squad that changed the Banner’s fortunes after decades of disappointment. There will be surprise in Cork that Ray Cummins, who was chosen on the Teams of the Century and Millennium, isn’t ranked higher than ninth, but it’s our contention that others are ahead of him for this exercise, which ranks players against each other, as opposed to selecting position-byposition.