GAVIN CUMMISKEYtalks to Kilkenny's JJ Delaney ahead of Sunday's All-Ireland final against Tipperary

THE HALF-BACK line in hurling is where all the great teams, and average ones too, look for inspiration. It is the heartbeat of a team. It is where inaccuracy is so ruthlessly punished.

Take in a sizzling championship encounter in Semple Stadium and you will hear the crowd make a sound unfamiliar to other sporting theatre. It is a low, gurgling yelp of delight as a centre or wing back plucks a dropping sliotar from the sky and drives it 70 metres down field, in an instant heaping pressure on the opposition.

These are the line of men that can rapidly swing the momentum of a hurling contest. It certainly lifts the spirits of those in attendance and gives a hungry inside forward the ball he craves.

The half-back line in hurling is where JJ Delaney has mostly operated since his championship debut against Offaly back in 2001.

Of course, there has been times when JJ’s sturdiness has been utilised elsewhere, most recently last season when injury to Noel Hickey saw him redeployed to full back with great success.

But the man is a wing back and he has four All Stars to prove it. Not long before the fifth, it seems.

Where to start with a profile of this man? The Kilkenny press pack describe him as one of hurling’s best ever defenders, a quality proved beyond doubt by his ability to hurl full back at the highest level. Kilkenny have had a remarkable run of brilliant left-half backs, going back to Dick Grace of the first great team, but few if any were better than this Johnstown native. Class in everything he does.

JJ comes from a blue blood hurling line as his father Shem Delaney pocketed his own Celtic Cross in 1974 (not to mention uncles Billy Fitzpatrick and Pat Delaney). JJ is looking for medal number seven on Sunday.

Presuming he would be one of the main Brian Cody Rottweilers at their infamous Nowlan Park practice matches, we asked Delaney to add more fuel to the burning myth.

“Ah, legend, lads kinda tell stories and stories gather legs as well. Half a limb coming off, he (Cody) doesn’t blow (his whistle) often. It’s great to be back down there I’d tell you that. I don’t know how the forwards do it. If you got to any club match in Kilkenny it would be as tough as that. If you go soft on a lad, he would get used to that and when he gets hit in a match he would be there, ‘what the f*** is going on here!’ It would take him 10, 15, 20 minutes to get back into the game. Sure, that’s a third of the game gone so you kinda have to get yourself ready. You don’t want him to go soft on you as well.”

A question follows about Tipperary. It was an invitation to say loads of nice things about the opposition, and while he did, he adopted an interesting angle of response. Are Tipp the worst possible opponents considering what went on in last year’s final? “No, I think it would be the best possible team because you know – it’s kind of an unusual thing to say – but we won the final last year but I don’t know if we were the best team on the day. Being 100 per cent honest with you, looking back on the game, they threw everything bar the kitchen sink at us but they just couldn’t get over the line.”

“I know it’s an unusual thing to say, we won last year but we have a point to prove this year. We were expecting a massive game last year, and we’re expecting that and more this year.”

JJ Delaney

Club: The Fenians

Position: Wing back

Age: 28

Occupation: Sales rep (Tegral)

Honours: 6 All-Ireland SHC (2002-03, 2006-09); 8 Leinster SHC (2002-03, 2005-10); 5 NHL (2002-03, 2005-06, 2009), All-Ireland under-21 (2003)