SOME GREAT hurlers prefer to slip away from the main stage without any fanfare, and Joe Deane, it seems, is one of them. Cork’s three-time All-Ireland winner has informed current manager Denis Walsh he won’t be returning to the panel after all, and with that the 31-year-old brings down the curtain on his magnificent career.

It’s not easy to summarise Deane’s contribution to Cork hurling over the past 13 years but when one of the all-time greats, Jimmy Barry Murphy, describes him as a “hurling genius” then clearly he’s the sort of player that doesn’t come around very often.

“I really can’t speak highly enough of Joe Deane,” says Barry Murphy, Cork’s former dual All-Ireland winning player and hurling manager. “I just feel I was lucky enough to have coached him, put it that way. He was a hurling genius, and a great individual, extremely gracious, on and off the field.”

It was Barry Murphy, as manager of the county minor team, who gave Deane his first start in the Cork jersey in 1995 – although he reckons now that may have been a year too late.

“I was manager in 1994 as well, when Joe first came on the scene. He wasn’t the biggest player around, and even though he made up for that with his skill level, we didn’t play him that year, and I think we paid a price. Galway beat us in the final that year. But he came in the following year, and he won the All-Ireland. And I knew even then he was destined to be a superstar.”

So excited was he of Deane’s prospects that Barry Murphy straightaway called him into the senior team when he took over in 1996 – but in hindsight that may have been a little too soon.“We started him that summer in the championship, against Limerick, the same day Seán Óg Ó hAilpín made his debut. And we were annihilated. That was certainly a baptism of fire, and in hindsight perhaps too soon for him. I feared that might affect his career, leave him a little scarred, but instead he went on to be that superstar.”

During that time Deane also won back-to-back All-Ireland under-21 titles, in 1997 and 1998, established himself as one of the most promising forwards in the game. Yet he played every senior championship game bar one for Cork from 1996-98, and only ended winning one of them – his main success being the National League title in 1998.

In 1999 all that changed when Barry Murphy first took Cork to the Munster final, and then the subsequent All-Ireland final: “For me one of the highlights of Joe’s career was that 1999 Munster final, against Clare. He took a great pass from Seánie McGrath and finished it into the net. The All-Ireland final that year against Kilkenny was played in dreadful conditions, and Joe came up with some crucial scores.”

That success was repeated in 2004 and 2005, only for Kilkenny to end their quest for three-in-a-row, in 2006. Later that year it was revealed Deane had undergone an operation for testicular cancer, but he made a full recovery to in fact captain Cork in 2007, replacing the dropped Kieran Murphy.

Last year, Deane wasn’t selected to start a championship match, for only the second time in his career, and although he did play in the All-Ireland semi-final against Kilkenny, there was some signs he wasn’t the player of earlier years.

“Joe is no fool,” adds Barry Murphy, “and knew he was coming to the end of his career. He could have hung around for a bit more but I think he’s done the gracious thing as well, even though he’ll be massively missed.”

Deane’s scoring tally of 3-234 from 48 games ranks him number eight on the all-time championship scoring list, behind Kilkenny’s Eddie Keher, who remains number one with his 36-307, from 50 games.

Walsh also confirmed defender Brian Murphy has decided against making himself available for the year ahead.

The 27-year-old former young hurler of the year hasn’t been part of the panel this year.