By his own estimation, Cork defender Rory Maguire is a "completely different player" to the one he was just two years ago.
Maguire, a nominee for a 2023 PwC All-Star award in just his second season of senior inter-county football, became a regular source of scores for the Cork this year on their run to the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
Playing at half-back but wearing number three, he hit 1-5 in this year's championship, including two points in a crucial group stage victory over Mayo, another two in the All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final win against Roscommon and a goal in the four-point quarter-final defeat to Derry.
2 July 2023; Rory Maguire of Cork scores his side's first goal over the head of Derry goalkeeper Odhran Lynch during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final match between Derry and Cork at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile
The Castlehaven man didn't play minor football for Cork and though he was part of the Rebels' U20 panel, he didn't get any game time.
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"I always had the skill," Maguire tells Balls.
"I was a very small underage player. Till I was about 17, 18 maybe. I'd have been skinny and small, but I was always a good footballer.
"I never really worked that hard off the field. Well, I might have thought I was at the time, but I definitely wasn't looking back now.
Rory Maguire puts Cork back in front with his second point of the game.
Watch the game live on https://t.co/C7FxP1q5Ku pic.twitter.com/slMD8wtOI6
— The GAA (@officialgaa) June 18, 2023
"I went to college at MTU [Cork], and started playing freshers football there. It kind of all kicked off after that. I just decided I was going to give it a good go and see where it'll take me.
"Then I got to call off Keith Ricken, and I got on to the U20 setup. I was probably a bit behind a lot of the other players. Even at that time, I was still a good bit off physically – a couple of management even said that. I wasn't good enough that year. I wasn't pushing [to get on] the team.
"I was on the bench for the first game against Waterford. Then, we played junior [club football] the Monday night after that, I suffered a knee injury. That was basically the end of the championship for me.
"I just did a massive amount of work over Covid in the gym and running. I was just training for the sake of training. There was nothing to train for, but we were just going anyway."
12 February 2020; Ben Finnegan of Mary Immaculate College Limerick in action against Rory Maguire of CIT during the Trench Cup Final match between Mary Immaculate College Limerick and CIT at Dublin City University Sportsgrounds in Glasnevin, Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
In 2021, Castlehaven reached the semi-finals of the Cork Premier SFC, losing on penalties to eventual champions St Finbarr's. On the back of his club performances, Maguire received a call-up to the Cork panel.
"I had very little break going into the full inter-county season," says Maguire. "I just took it all in stride from the 2022 season, just got my feet wet."
He played all but one of Cork's games across the 2022 pre-season, league and championship as the side initially managed by Keith Ricken and then Maguire's uncle John Cleary were beaten by Dublin in the All-Ireland quarter-finals.
"Coming into the 2023 season, I knew I had savage work to do," he says.
"I think I've gotten fitter and stronger over the last year and a half, done a lot of work on shooting. You're only seeing the fruits of it this year.
"I identified a lot of things in my game after the last season that I wanted to change and bring into this season. I don't think I offered enough attacking output for the team. I didn't score at all in last year's championship.
"I'd be in the gym now, three or four times a week. Recovery is probably the most important thing. You have to be meticulous with sleep and diet. Those are two massive pillars.
"If you're not sleeping over eight hours a night, you're at a loss because you're not going to feel good. If you're training and not feeling good, then you're not going to play well.
"A lot of it is in our own hands, and it's up to us to get the work done. If you're not working hard enough, then it'll show up come the last five or ten minutes of the game when you need that last burst."
7 May 2022; Dejected Cork players Rory Maguire, left, and Steven Sherlock after the Munster GAA Football Senior Championship Semi-Final match between Cork and Kerry at Páirc Ui Rinn in Cork. Photo by Stephen McCarthy/Sportsfile
After an average league campaign in which Cork finished mid-table in Division Two, they got a "gut check" in the Munster quarter-final against Clare. The Banner won by a point at Cusack Park. Cork had gone into the game with confidence after drawing with reigning Ulster champions Derry in the final game of the league.
"They had our number that day," Maguire says of Clare.
"They had their matchups right, and they all worked us on the day. We didn't take our chances.
"That left us in a difficult position because we didn't know what competition we were playing in. We finished fourth in the league, but there were a lot of teams that could have knocked us out of Sam Maguire because of the way the provincial championships were set up. So, we were caught in a limbo.
"We met up the next week and said 'We'll train as hard as we can for the next seven weeks and we'll see where it takes us'. That's what we did. The training was ferocious there for those weeks, and it really stood to us."
Cork were drawn against Kerry, Louth and Mayo in the group stage of the All-Ireland series. Nearly two months after the defeat to Clare, Cork beat Louth by two points, a game Maguire missed due to a hamstring injury. He came back in for the two-point defeat to Kerry which followed.
In the final group game against Mayo, Cork pulled off a remarkable comeback, swinging the score from six points down in the last quarter to three points up by the final whistle. It was a result which took moved Cork from third to second in the group, securing a home preliminary quarter-final against Roscommon.
18 June 2023; Maurice Shanley of Cork celebrates with teammate Rory Maguire at the final whiste during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship Round 3 match between Cork and Mayo at TUS Gaelic Grounds in Limerick. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile
"If I were to pick out one moment that I realised that this team was serious and this team was ready to win, it was when we conceded that goal against Mayo," says Maguire.
"We went straight down the field and Colm O'Callaghan burst through a few of them and won a penalty. Stephen Sherlock coolly converted.
"That was the one moment where I said this team is ready to rock. That was such an elite response from the team. Then we went on to score, I think it was six points in a row after that, and we won by three.
"It fed into the next game against Roscommon. We started poorly but just before half-time and just after half-time, I thought we hosed them. We were down 7-3 maybe or 6-3, I think. Then we just went on a run. We broke their kick out, and we just fed off the crowd that day in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.
"We've shown Cork at our best there. We just have to replicate that and keep working. There's a lot more in us, I feel anyway, that we can bring to the top table. There's a lot of talent in the team that still hasn't shown their full potential. We just have to keep working, keep believing in each other, and keep the system; who knows where it'll take us."
2 July 2023; Rory Maguire of Cork blows kisses to the crowd as he celebrates after scoring his side's first goal during the GAA Football All-Ireland Senior Championship quarter-final match between Derry and Cork at Croke Park in Dublin. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
In the quarter-final against Derry, Maguire scored his first goal for Cork, timing his run perfectly to palm Conor Corbett's looping handpass over Odhran Lynch.
As he turned away from the goal, Maguire briefly blew kisses to the crowd, replicating the celebration favoured by former Derry footballer Joe Brolly.
"It was a spur of the moment," says Maguire.
"Just a pure rush of blood, pure buzz. It's probably something I regret now for the way it worked out because they went straight down the field and scored a goal.
"I just saw Odhran Lynch come out to me, and I was like, 'If I hit this first time, there's a chance of getting over him'. It brought us back to a point, I think, at the time. The place went nuts behind me."
"Someone showed [a picture of my celebration] to me after the game, and I didn't even realise it to be honest, that there is a bit of a significance to it."
Goal for Cork! - Rory Maguire scores his first ever championship goal to close the gap to one. pic.twitter.com/2r1rMsfbHT
— The GAA (@officialgaa) July 2, 2023
Maguire is Cork's only PwC All-Star nominee this year. He's quick to suggest that Ian Maguire and Colm O'Callaghan deserved recognition as well.
"I went on a bit of a hot streak there over the three games," he says.
"That's just down to the team, everyone else is working together, I just came to the end with a few scores. We got a few results there, won a few big games.
"The family, the father and mother are buzzing now alright after the news. It's nice for the club as well. It's nice to go back to club training on Friday night, fellas patting me on the back."
