Farewell Teddy Mac

I don’t remember that much about Teddy McCarthy as a player although everyone in Cork knew he was an icon - truly unique.

His incredibly athletic catches and his powerful surges playing both hurling and football made him iconic in a different way. They made him charismatic and special - a player that lifted the crowd and his own team through his actions.

For two weeks in 1990, he achieved the near-impossible. And he also became a father for the first time when his son Cian was born between the two All-Ireland finals.

The rest of his life must have seemed incredibly mundane!

Aggression and confidence were his greatest assets - along with that prodigious leap that saw him soar so impossibly to claim so many slitters and footballs with opponents left beaten below him.

In an era when players didn’t have the same focus on them - no social media and far less actual inter county games - he still stood out as one full of personality and life.

There was a particular ‘Corkness’ about him - a swagger, a confidence he exuded. He made his intercounty debut in an All-Ireland final. Did it phase him? Of course not!

Denis Walsh of The Irish Times spent part of a day with him in the lead-up to the second All-Ireland final in 1990 and found him to be totally relaxed, confident that he would perform in such a huge game. And he certainly did.

In a way, Teddy McCarthy personifies Cork itself to an extent. Perhaps that’s what made his sudden death on 6 June so shocking.

He wasn’t simply a former sporting great, he was a great among greats.

I watched the TG4 programme ‘Laochra Gael’ on him to hear him talk and see him soar once again. He played in so many All-Ireland finals in both codes. Although there players, mainly in Cork, continued to try and play both codes after he had left the inter-county scene in 1996, very few after him would have played as much for strong teams in both codes.

That did come at a cost, however. In ‘Laochra Gael’, he mentioned that the commitment of playing hurling and football for Cork meant he did regret missing out on some of the times when his kids were growing up. Some nights in the summer, he would train with both teams and get home long after they had gone to bed.

It is unlikely his achievements will ever be replicated again. Truly we will never see his like again. RIP Teddy Mac.