HAVE LEFT REPUTATION IN RUINS

There it will linger, its enormous dark shadow blotting out until the end of time an authentically great player's stellar achievements on the hurling field.

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Carey's five All-Irelands with Kilkenny, the nine All-Stars, his consensus selection on the Team of the Millennium, all those moments of genius that electrified Croke Park, each feels about as weighty as a blade of grass, as insubstantial as a dust mote.

Now, when people gaze upon the ancient game's Mount Rushmore, it will be to see a likeness of the once revered son of Gowran with a phone charger stuck up his nose.