One of the great free spirits of the game.
Lar Corbett was one of Tipperary’s greatest ever forwards. On the first September Sunday of 2010, the Thurles Sarsfields slinger cemented his immortality in the annals of Premier County history.
Three gorgeous goals, obliging the hopes and dreams of a whole county, bringing Liam McCarthy back for the first time in nine years. You’d think that would be enough to secure legendary status for life in Tipperary, and even further beyond given their desperation to usurp Kilkenny at that tie.
But the case of Lar Corbett, the fleet footed assassin with the bright yellow helmet, is a curious one.
While there were always soft spots for ‘Larry’ from Lorrha to Clonmel and from Cahir to Nenagh, he’d regularly come in for criticism. The most demanding GAA support in the whole country always expected so much of Larry.
That’s because he was so good.
From blinding pace to a lethal touch, there was no gift he was deprived of and while he made it look so effortless on the good days, that’s what made the bad ones so tough for Tipperary folk to understand.
But you have to remember, this is a man who was dogged his career long by seemingly incurable hamstring injuries. He was no underage star, was parachuted into the Tipp team by a faithful Nicky English in 2001 without having any minor or much under-21 experience.
The year beforehand, he had been selling programmes outside Semple Stadium with no real visions of greatness. Then it all just clicked.
It is and always was well known within Tipperary that their most lethal forward was a complex individual. His book-title, ‘All In My Head’ gives that much away.
Corbett’s Laochra Gael episode aired on TG4 last year and it offered a glimpse into the mind behind one of the game’s greatest perplexities.
Eamon O’Shea got the best out of his mercurial talent, but even the 2010 All-Ireland winning manager often struggled to figure his man out.
“You have to figure out what wavelength, it’s like tuning into a radio station, if you think there’s only one wavelength out there, you’re wrong, with Larry you have to keep tuning.”
The first instalment of the new hour long Laochra Gael is nearly here. Beginning with a hurling great, colourful raconteur and born again business entrepreneur – the immensely entertaining enigma that is Lar Corbett. Understanding Lar Corbett 28/02/18 @ 21:30 #TG4 #LaochraGael pic.twitter.com/jSkRZExR6R
— Laochra Gael (@Laochra_Gael) February 26, 2018
Some will feel that the deep thinking hampered him, some the opposite. But when it worked, it worked and when Corbett scored 4-4 against Waterford in the 2011 Munster final, his brain was on fire. He left everyone for dead.
“His thinking of the game that day was ten seconds ahead of everyone else, including the Tipperary forwards,” said teammate Eoin Kelly of him.
Watch his Laochra Gael here.
