GREAT FIRST TOUCH AND A BRAIN FOR HURLING

TRIBUTES PAID TO CORK LEGEND & 3-TIME ALL-IRELAND WINNER

- PAT NOLAN

OVER the course of Cork's three-in-a-row run from 1976-78, only one line of the team remained unchanged.

Ray Cummins was the bulwark at full-forward, flanked by Seanie O'Leary and Charlie McCarthy for each of those successes. Between them, they amassed 3-23 in the three final victories over Wexford (twice) and Kilkenny.

O'Leary's 1-2 in the 1977 final was particularly noteworthy for the fact that he lined out despite breaking his nose after being struck by a sliotar during the warm-up, with Cork selector Christy Ring famously reminding him that "you don't hurl with your nose" as he received treatment.

“Seanie-Ray-Charlie, as we called them," said Tom Cashman when remembering his former teammate O'Leary, who died on Wednesday at the age of 69.

"It was easy for us when you had the three of them inside in the full-forward line just to play the ball into them and they'd do the rest.