GAELIC GAMES:He's manned the barricades for Cork for 10 years, but as John Gardiner tells MALACHY CLERKINmoral victories are not enough anymore at this stage

HE WAS a boy once. Not that long ago either. But sit on a high stool beside John Gardiner and it feels like a stretch to declare it. Shoulders so broad they start up around his ears and seem to end halfway down his back. A quiet, solid manner that is chipped from rock.

He turned 28 a few months back, but comes across like he was born 40 and is drumming his fingers on the table waiting for the rest of him to catch up some day. As if he was a boy once but only for about a week and a half.

He was though. When the Cork hurlers first took to the barricades, he was just a year out of minor. Long and skinny as a kitchen match and with barely a fully-formed opinion in his head, he found himself on a war footing before hed had time to admire the stripe on his cadet badge.

One out, all out. People he trusted told him why it was important and he went along with it. But he was a small voice in the chorus, far removed from the microphone. It was the last time he played that role.

Seems like a lifetime ago now. Gardiner reaped two All-Irelands with most of the players he took to the trenches beside back then. They came rat-a-tat in 2004 and 05, from a team crackling with speed and precision and above all structure.

In any other county in any other era, there might have been a couple more in them.

But as peace splintered and Kilkenny hopped on the train to immortality, Cork got weary and distracted and left behind.

Gardiner went from cadet to colonel, bypassing the ranks in between without anyone thinking it out of the ordinary. Youre only old before your time if you dont accept that your time is now.

I think some of the stuff that we went through helped us as people, but it wasnt what we got into this for, he says. We didnt start playing hurling to get involved in all of that. But it has made me a stronger person, no doubt about it. It has made me into someone who will take a step back from a situation and look at it differently if I can.

Some of the stuff that went on wasnt pretty but thats gone now and we dont worry about it anymore. Were just happy to be back hurling. Im probably a bit stronger and a bit more single-minded than before. You learn a lot, but a lot of it doesnt really help your hurling career.

Hard to argue on that score. On the championship cityscape, Tipp and Kilkenny are the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe. Cork are one of those old museums you have to fiddle with a Metro map to locate.

Theyve been passed by Galway and probably by Dublin and Waterford too, their position at fourth in the All-Ireland betting list a sop to tradition and to the fear that you wouldnt know what the hoors could do.

This very week last year, they were supposed to be broken and destitute heading into the opener against Tipp. Look what happened.

I think if you look back at it, says Gardiner, we were probably further on than even we thought we were. Wed played very well in the league and got to the final and that all culminated in the win against Tipperary in the first round of the championship.

“Those were performances that built on each other I suppose. But the problem was we never reached that level again. Hopefully was can keep it up this time.

Look, we come from the county we come from and we have no choice but to believe in ourselves. You can look at last year two ways. If youre able to take a step back and look at the progression of certain members of the panel, fellas who were playing their first championship game last year have progressed an awful lot.

“But theres no All-Ireland on the counter at the end of it and thats what youre measured on, being honest about it. From that point of view, the year was very disappointing.

Fair enough, but given the chaos that preceded it, anything more than an All-Ireland semi-final was a pipe dream surely. Gardiner was playing under his sixth manager in nine years and the ocean that had flowed under the bridge in that time couldnt but wash away any serious prospects they had. You have to be realistic, no?

Yeah, you do, he says. And the realistic thing is that we should be winning. We should be winning big games and we should be winning trophies. Thats the way were driven and thats the way we go about our business.

“Winning is the way to go, thats what youre judged on. Moral victories are no good to anyone. Were not in the business of moral victories. When we pack up and walk away, nobody will be talking about the years you did well enough with what you had.

“Theyll be talking about the years you won All-Irelands. Thats just the reality. Youll be measured on what you have in your pocket.

Of the team that faces Tipp tomorrow, only five have medals in their pocket – himself, Donal Óg, Brian Murphy, Niall McCarthy and Ben OConnor.

Theres a scattering of them on the bench and Ronan Curran will be back from injury at some point but even so, theyre falling away like crumbs off a biscuit now.

Brian Corcoran went first, then Pat Mulcahy. More of them – Diarmuid OSullivan and Joe Deane. Timmy Mac too.

Bit by bit the men he won the medals with, the men he took the stands with, they waved goodbye and pulled their chutes.

Then the winter just gone felt like losing a limb. Seán Óg was cut loose as if he was just anybody. And maybe he was. Maybe they got complacent and thought he was untouchable. Whatever, Gardiner couldnt believe it when he heard. Gone, just like that.

For that week and a half or so back when hed been a boy, Seán Óg was the man. There were six years between them but that gap closed when Gardiner came on to the county panel.

They were club colleagues who became friends who are damn near brothers now.

For him to walk in the parade tomorrow without Ó hÁilpín two steps behind is going to feel weird.

Yeah, its different alright without him. Its something that I didnt think was going to happen this year. I thought that Id be on one wing and Seán Óg would be on the other and wed play away together for many a year.

“This will be my first championship season without Seán Óg. Hes been absolutely outstanding for Cork, everybody has seen it for themselves. Its just a shame the way he went out of it, I thought he deserved more than to be left out of the panel the way he was.

“He was a great fella to me, he always was. Id have the utmost respect for him. Anywhere you go around the country, not just in Cork, people have a respect for Seán Óg. And its a warranted respect because hes a genuinely nice guy and Ive never seen a fella to train as hard as he does.

“Its great to have a fella like that who you can look up to and benchmark yourself off. Its just going to be difficult without him this year.

Hell carry on regardless. Into his 10th season now, hes only missed one championship game in all that time. A broken finger kept him sidelined once and once only, otherwise hes been a fixture.

His work with Ulster Bank gives him a little leeway to train and prepare – they use him for their own purposes too, getting him to promote events like the Ulster Bank GAA Force – but outside hurling, life rolls to a gentle enough rhythm. Say John, what do you do for enjoyment away from the game?

But sure this is enjoyment! he laughs. We wouldnt be doing it unless we loved it. This is what were about. Youre at a stage in your life where you can give everything you have to it. I wouldnt want to be doing anything else.

“Even in the middle of winter when youre training on your own, youre doing it for this time of year. I wont be able to hurl forever so Im going to enjoy it as much as I can while I can.

Thurles in May.

Tipp as All-Ireland champions.

Nobody giving Cork a chance but themselves.

The lie of the land looking perfect for an ambush.

Whats not to enjoy?