To be asked to captain any team is a big honour but skippering Cork county hurlers is huge

DOWNEY THRILLED TO BE LEADING REBELS

- BY PAT NOLAN

THIRTEEN Cork men have sought to follow Sean Og O hAilpin in the last 20 years and none have succeeded.

Back then, Cork maintained the once widespread, though now largely diminished, practice of allowing the county champions to nominate the captain of the county team so, with Na Piarsaigh winning the Sean Og Murphy Cup in 2004, O hAilpin was the obvious choice and duly lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup as they completed the back-to-back the following year.

Pat Mulcahy had the honour the following year after Newtownshandrum won the county, but Cork failed in their three-in-row bid and 12 others have held the role since without the ultimate success of captaining Cork to an All-Ireland.

Kieran Murphy from Erin's Own followed Mulcahy, after which Cork broke with tradition as the team management was granted the power of picking the captain, with John Gardiner the first to be chosen in that manner for the 2008 and ‘09 seasons.

Since then Kieran Murphy (Sarsfields), Shane O'Neill, Donal Og Cusack, Patrick Cronin, Anthony Nash, Stephen McDonnell, Seamus Harnedy, Patrick Horgan, Mark Coleman and Sean O'Donoghue have been handed the role, before Pat Ryan turned to Robert Downey last winter.

"I was taken aback a small bit, yeah," says Downey. "I was delighted and hugely honoured. To be asked to captain any team is an honour, but to be asked to be captain of the Cork team is a massive honour.