Looking back DJ was hiding in plain sight

DISGRACED HURLING STAR SHOWED HIS DECEPTIVE NATURE WITH PERFORMANCE IN 2010 INTERVIEW

- Garry Doyle

DJ CAREY was waiting. The venue was the K Club, the year was 2010.

He was 40, five years into his retirement as an inter-county hurler, and yet he remained one of the most recognisable faces in Irish life - not just Irish sport.

The meeting had been prearranged by the Gaelic Players Association. Carey knew I had been assigned to interview him for a book that was a fundraiser for the GPA's past players' benevolent fund. And he knew it was my job to ask questions; his, to answer them.

But that was not how our conversation started. Instead, after a brief period of small talk, he stared unflinchingly and began grilling me on how and why I had come to be tasked with writing a 5,000-word profile on his playing days.

At some point, after about his fifth or sixth question, I stopped answering and just looked at him quizzically. He knew the answers to everything he was asking.

We had never met before, and the only reason we were there was because he had agreed to the interview with the GPA's then leading figures.

So what was he playing at? Why was he being awkward? Was this just an attempt by an alpha to mark his territory?

Who knows. What I do remember is that the interview was on the verge of being aborted - if not by me, then possibly by him.

And then the mood suddenly changed, as if someone had flicked a switch.

"We better get started, then," he smiled.