Colm O’Neill had it all.
The Ballyclough man first graced the inter-county stage in 2005. He was only a minor then but it was already evident that he had what it took to make it to the very top of this game.
Just as graceful off his right as his left, O’Neill’s guile played a crucial role in Cork’s charge to the 2005 Munster minor title.
This man was only getting going then. He kicked the winning goal in the under-21 All-Ireland final in 2007 against Laois as a nineteen-year-old as the whispers began around the county about this man’s precarious talent.
Then in 2008, the ascending star would receive a hammer blow. Cruciate Knee Ligament injuries were coming to prominence more and more around that time and in a club game late on in that year, O’Neill suffered every GAA player’s nightmare injury.
The very next year he would lead the Rebels up the steps of the O’Moore Park stand to collect the Clarke Cup as captain. This was a man made of stern stuff, this was a man who wouldn’t take no for an answer.
He worked like a demon to make it back between the four lines and he got his reward for his persistence.
The world was at Colm O’Neill’s feet and he was quickly fast-tracked onto the Cork senior football panel. The good times kept on rolling for the man who had a sweeter strike of the O’Neill’s size five than most.
In February 2009, he won the Sigerson Cup with CIT and three months later in May of the same year he made his eagerly-awaited senior bow for the Leesiders.
For the next two full years, the dainty forward with the deceptive dummy would slalom his way through defences and kick points for fun in the red jersey.
The dreaded knee injury was in the vapours now.
He made an instant impact in the year of 2009 at a time when Cork football was rising up from the ashes. He won his first Munster medal that year and rattled the roof of the Canal End net ten minutes into that year’s All-Ireland final.
Conor Counihan’s men came up just short that day against the Kingdom but they were a young team then and they were on a learning curve. O’Neill was learning quicker than most.
Because it would only take a year for Cork to banish the demons of 2009. In 2010, he played a substitutes role as Cork bridged a 20 year gap to win their first All-Ireland since 1990.
But then in 2011 his season ended before it was even allowed to start as his whole world came crashing down in the early rounds of Cork’s National Football League.
A second Cruciate Ligament injury would have been enough for a lesser man to call it a day. Colm O’Neill put the head down and he came back for more.
It’s a measure of the work he put in that he came back in 2012 better than ever, it’s a measure of the love this man had for the game.. He ended that year an All-Star as he broke the bronco again.
Then in 2013, just as he was picking off from that groundbreaking season the year previous, the knee went again. Just imagine how O’Neill must have felt at that time.
All GAA players say the toughest part about it all is the games and the trainings you’re forced to watch from the sidelines and O’Neill had plenty of those.
He’d somehow find the strength to come back again, and as only he could, he scored beautiful points, he sold dummies, he blasted home goals, but there was always the sense that he just wasn’t getting a fair crack at it.
This year, again, he showed glimpses of a return to what he was when he scored a goal in Cork’s Munster championship opener against Tipp. Even a hampered Colm O’Neill was still better than most forwards in the country.
Another set-back occurred in the weeks after that and on Tuesday, the 42.ie broke the news that he’d decided to call it a day at 29.
That’s a shame.
It’s a shame for him, it’s a shame for his county but it’s a shame for football.
He didn’t get the breaks, but Jesus, didn’t he make the most of it?
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