OF THE 38 All-Ireland senior medals that Kilkenny lost to retirement last winter, nine of them belong to JJ Delaney.
The ninth, forged in a two-part blockbuster against Tipperary, didn’t leave him hungry for more. It reassured him that he was making the right decision.
Back at the end of 2013, Delaney steeled himself for his 14th season in senior inter-county hurling. This one would be different, he resolved; one way or another he would hang up his hurl at the end of the championship.
The freedom of making that decision — which he kept privately between himself and his girlfriend — allowed him to savour the little details which can so easily get lost in the blur of competition.
When his time was up, not even lifting Liam one last time, or collecting a remarkable seventh Allstar, could make him reconsider.
“Some people were saying to me after winning the All-Ireland and being lucky enough to get an Allstar, ‘Are you [making] the right decision?’” he said.
“I said it to myself probably at the start of the year, ‘How would you like to finish up?’ An ideal situation would have been winning the All-Ireland and the Allstar was a bonus, that wasn’t really in my head at all.
“Just winning the All-Ireland was the thing I wanted to do in my head at the start of the year. That justified my decision more than anything. It didn’t make me think second thoughts or anything. I was just kind of, ‘That’s it — we’ll go out like that.’”
Before bowing out, Delaney left a lasting reminder of the brilliance which tallies with Brian Cody’s declaration that the Fenians man was the best defender he has ever seen.
With 17 minutes gone in the All-Ireland final replay and Kilkenny leading by a point, Delaney launched himself in the direction of a goalbound Seamus Callanan. His hook was measured, timed and executed to perfection.
Callanan swung and missed, Kilkenny cleared their lines and the rest, as they say, is history.
“It was just a reaction thing more than anything,” was his modest assessment yesterday where he was speaking at the launch of the An Post Cycle Series.
“That day, it was a case of six defenders against their six forwards. It wasn’t one-on-one that day.
“After that hook Seamie got another chance but Padraig Walsh, the wing-back, he came back and made 40 or 50 yards and got the second one. If he didn’t get that second hook, Seamie would have got the goal and they wouldn’t have been talking about my hook at all.
It was definitely last ditch. If there was another 10 yards on the pitch, I wasn’t going to get it. It was throw yourself at this now and hope for the best.
For a man who has built his reputation on preventing scores rather than taking them, Delaney admits it was particularly special.
“It was something that happens that you dream of on All-Ireland final day. Especially when you’re a back, you’re not going to score a point or a goal, so that’s the best thing you can do.”
That moment would never have arrived had John “Bubbles” O’Dwyer’s monster free to win the drawn final drifted a millimetre or two to the other side of the Canal End upright. As 82,000 in Croke Park and hundreds of thousands more watching on TV held their breath, Delaney waited to see if his final act as an inter-county hurler would be determined by a machine.
“It’s all out of your hands at that stage, do you know what I mean? You’re in the hands of the Gods at that stage, or in the hands of Hawk-Eye, as it worked out.
“I didn’t look at the ball going up. I just looked straight at the umpire to see because it’s his decision at the end of the day. If you’re looking at a ball you’re not going to make it go wide or go over the bar. It’s just waiting for his reaction.
“When he went to Hawk-Eye we were relieved people, especially the backs. The first day we kind of got the run around but I think the second day we had a point to prove and I think we done it, as a unit. It wasn’t individual, it was as a unit.”
The win will be remembered especially as a magnificent 10th All-Ireland for two of the game’s greats in Henry Shefflin and Brian Cody. Was Delaney ever tempted to stick around and bid for his own décima?
“I get asked that question a lot,” he said. “I’m happy with my lot to be honest.
When I came in first, I was kind of treading water for the first year to be honest with you. After that, I just wanted to make the team and two would have done me, one would have done me. No, I’m very happy with my lot.
The competitive hunger might be more easily satiated as the years go by but for a man like Delaney, it never goes away. A few days short of his 33rd birthday, he still has a few good years to give to Fenians.
“I’d give away a couple of medals to win a county final with the club,” he admitted.
For a man who has made a habit of collecting All-Ireland medals, maybe there’s one more still to come.
