Stephen Cronin got all the way to under-16 level with Nemo Rangers before he won a championship game. That was not due to poor coaching.
A major factor was the club's underpinning philosophy, the one on which they have build prosperity: at underage levels, they do not prioritise winning. While others are thinking short-term, Nemo are playing the long game.
It's an ideology which finds its origins in the 80s with Mick O'Brien, father of Nemo great Stephen O'Brien, and has one aim: get kids playing games and enjoying themselves. The rewards will follow a decade or two later.
Between the ages of five and 10 - despite some pressure from outside to do otherwise - Nemo refuse to stream teams by ability into A and B. In terms of skill level, teams are split evenly and players just learn to play. If they win, it's a bonus, but there's no pressure to do so.
"What happens when there's a day where you are missing players and you have to bring some up from your supposed B team, what are you going to do the following week, kick them back down?" Nemo's departing underage chairman Kevin Barrett tells Balls.
By under-14, players are competing to win but that's not at the expense of game time for some. Nemo are an elite club who cannot be accused of elitism.
"If a kid turns up to play, they get proper game time," says Barrett.
It doesn't matter how many subs there are, they must get proper game time.
We had an information night recently and the slides were up and they said, 'Every child who comes down here and is registered with our club is entitled to be treated with respect, and not judged on their ability'.
I don't care what their ability is, you have to treat them with respect. Not every player is going to make the Cork senior team.
Once you accept streaming of kids, then you're only going one way: You're encouraging a winning is everything mentality - that's a disaster.
You're going to lose players very quickly. If you're a parent and you're watching that, you won't want to bring your kid back down.
The policy applies across the board from their football and hurling teams to ladies football and camogie sides. The club has seen an explosion in young girls playing camogie since first starting teams in 2014.
At senior men's level, the club has harvested those seeds sown decades earlier. There are the obvious fruits like winning 21 Cork SFC titles, 17 Munster titles and seven All-Ireland titles, victories that are a celebrated part of this club's history.
There are also the less obvious ones: Nemo are currently able to field a football team at every senior grade. That's all the way from the top down to junior C.
"We're the biggest club in name but in terms of numbers we're not," Barrett says.
"We keep telling people, 'We're not going to judge you on how many cups you won at underage, it's about delivering people into the senior club'."
On January 4th, Nemo play Corofin hoping to reach their 13th All-Ireland decider. When they do so, Stephen Cronin - the man who won just a single championship game up to under-16 - will line out at centre-back.
Jack Horgan, who couldn't get on the club's U21 B-team at one point, will be beside him at wing-back. Nemo retain players for longer, allowing them to develop potential which other clubs would not have had the patience to exploit.
They also cultivate a love of the club beyond a playing career. Ultimately, players give back more than they take, the true essence of what the GAA is all about.
"I think no one has the attitude of 'What does the club owe me?' It’s 'What more can I do?'" said Paul Kerrigan, a man who has played 100 championship games for Nemo.
On this year's senior management team are two players, Willie Morgan and Gary Murphy, who have won All-Ireland titles. The backroom team which led the club to the 2017 final are nearly all involved with underage sides. Giving back to the underage set up is as important as winning All-Ireland's for Nemo.
"The underage and senior club are really close," says Barrett.
"When we win the county, the underage chairman is given the cup. [This year] they were all in the dressing room, hugging and kissing. I was waiting outside and they gave me the cup. I brought it back on the bus with all the kids.
"We try to find the youngest kid that we can, give them the cup and then there's a big rolling maul that brings it to the clubhouse.
"When the team are arriving back, they ring me and I get the kids to bring the cup back out to the team, and let them bring it in then.
"You look around and see happy parents, loads of pictures being taken."
That's all part of the Nemo ethos, where inclusion and belonging is the focal point of the club. It's working for them and they're not going to change it.
AIB GAA Club Championship Semi Finals will be played the weekend of 4/5 January followed by the finals on 19th January.
