He could hurl, had the hands, the skills, but above all he was hard, had size, strength, power and an edge that distinguished him from the pack. That edge is with him in life and in training which he puts into practice as Cork prepare for what is certain to be a bruising battle with Clare this Sunday.
 

"I was on Setanta (O hAilpin) last night, and I flaked the ****e out of him, gave it to him good and hard, because I know Frank Lohan will give it to him. It wasn't dirty, but it was hard, and it was deliberate.
He'll catch me for pace, but the minute he turned with the ball, I'd leave him have it, once he got the ball out in the corner and tried turning it, I'd be pulling. I gave it to him hard, the same as I gave it to Ben O'Connor (another Cork forward) when I was on him." He could, of course, have tried to match the new Cork forward sensation for pace, but that wasn't an option.
"I'd be fast, but there's fast and there's Setanta/Ben O'Connor fast. It was the same with Gerry O'Connor. I marked him on Tuesday night, he got away from me the very first ball, he had to be clipped the second ball, slow him down."
 

Now there are those who will read the above and say, ha, always knew it, this guy is a mean and dirty *******. Read it again. "It wasn't dirty, but it was hard, and it was deliberate."
Like it or loathe it, that is hurling, championship hurling, at the top. Attitude is everything. If there are any cracks, any weaknesses, if you are not girded properly mentally for the physical battle, then you'll be blown away.
 

For proof, look no further than last Sunday fortnight, when Clare exploded out of the blocks in Pairc Ui Chaoimh and a shell-shocked Tipperary were gone by the break. That is what Cork must ready themselves for, that is why Diarmuid O'Sullivan has that edge.
"I was talking to Brendan Cummins (Tipp keeper), they weren't expecting that they would be hit so hard. But Clare got to the All-Ireland final last year, played an incredibly tense game against Waterford in the semi-final, a lot of hard hurling in that. You don't lose that overnight."
"Look, if I'm playing corner-forward or full-forward, and I'm worried, 'he's going to hit me', then I'm nervous about the first ball coming in, and I'm gone. Likewise if I'm full-back, you're full-forward, and I'm thinking 'Jesus, Flynn is going to cut the head off me first ball', what am I going to do? Am I going to run away from it or what? If you let that get to you, you're beaten before you start."
 

So you steel yourself, you go out with intent, no prisoners. If this sounds like war, it's because that's exactly what it is. The aim isn't blood and gory, but championship IS death or glory. What we, the fans, want to see in the guys wearing our colours is someone who will give everything for the cause, who will take the big hits, give the big hits, all within reason.
Diarmuid O'Sullivan is prepared to do both. Recently, in his first game back after suffering a calf injury against Clare seven weeks ago, he played club championship against Ballyhea, marked by a youngster, Jonathon O'Sullivan. The first game finished all square, and in the course of the replay Diarmuid got a belt across the top of the thumb, which required five stitches (didn't come off, of course). No hard feelings, au contraire, he was full of praise for his namesake.
 

"Tough boy, and don't I know it, but a nice hurler, quick to the break. Sore at the time, sore even getting it stitched, and I only got them out during the week. Mind you, those two games brought me on a pile, I was miles behind what was needed. After the belt against Clare, I couldn't hurl for five weeks, and those two games really woke me up, the first game especially. I was way off it, he beat me to the breaking ball four or five times, I wasn't pushing up under the dropping ball."
"If I hit anyone, you don't go then saying you're sorry. You either want to win or you don't; ruthless aggression, you have to have it because if you don't, you're wasting your time, with club or county. You can't afford to cross the mark, but you must live on the margin or you're wasting your time. And that's the reality."
 

And that is the reality. Mind you, at the start of this season, unthinkable as it would have been to most Cork fans, it seemed as if Diarmuid O'Sullivan mightn't even be on the scene. Omitted from the league panel early on, weight problems reported, but there was more to it than that. A dual player last year, he almost walked away.
 

"There were times at the start of the year when I really struggled, especially when I was still trying to mix both games. I was tired, fed up with it all, spoke to one or two people. What should I do? Should I hang in there in both? It was getting to be too much. If I was fitter it wouldn't have been too bad, but I wasn't. I wasn't getting my game in the football, missing two nights training with the hurlers when they were going at it really hard, and I found myself falling behind."
 

The reason he wasn't fitter was because last September he came to a full stop. Six years with club and county, six years of hard training, six years with no break winter or summer, he ran out of energy.
 

Suffered, because Diarmuid is one of those cursed people who put on weight almost by looking at food. And he likes his food. "I'm a terror for it, good food mind you, at this time of year I wouldn't eat rubbish. But I'd still sneak a bar of chocolate every couple of days, though there were times I'd have three or four a day, during the winter and the fry in the morning. I can't do that anymore."
 

Like the belts suffered in silence, more hidden sacrifice, confirmed by a very specific lunch order, plain chicken sandwich, no butter. But the suffering?
 

"I'm down to about fifteen and three-quarter stone at the moment, and that's after a long struggle. Just after Christmas, I'd say I was just off seventeen."
 

Big boy for a hurler, but at 6'2" in height also, wouldn't look at all out of place on a rugby side. Don't rule that out either, because he's had an approach, hasn't yet dismissed the notion.
 

"Bandon, Trevor's place, but I'll be 25 in July, and it might be too late for me. We'll see, it would be nice to test yourself against some of those fellas." Back-row, centre?
 

"Number 10, I wouldn't mind kicking the ball!"
 

Won't be wearing 10 against Clare, won't even be wearing three, the number in which he made his name. While he was out, Newtownshandrum's Pat Mulcahy came in at full-back, impressed enough to retain that position through the league, but Diarmuid is happy now to get any shirt, as long as it's between 1 and 15.
 

The hurling appetite is back, unfinished business for himself and the dozen or so others still around from the baby-faced side that powered to All-Ireland glory in 1999. There is a growing urgency now to prove that season was no fluke.
 

"The main reason we won that, I reckon, was because we were young, and we wanted to win for Jimmy Barry-Murphy. For Jimmy to come, pat you on the back and say, 'great game, well done', money couldn't buy what that meant to fellas. We were relaxed, too, no fear, written off in every game, and it was amazing how quickly that changed. Afterwards, we were favourites in nearly every game." Not this Sunday, however.
 

"I wouldn't think so, no, and rightly so. '99 is gone, the hanging around, the messing, all the talk, gone, finished. That was four years ago, four years onto our lives, and if we don't start shaping up soon, we won't get another one. That team is breaking up, in danger of falling by the wayside, while Kilkenny (the team they beat) have gone from strength to strength.
 

"They've won two since, could have won three, but they're beatable too, have no doubt about that. But first things first. This game is only one game from the Munster final, and that's an unbelievable day. If we get to a Munster final, I have no doubt we'll win it, and we'll go further. Cork are about Munster finals, that's how I see it.
 

"The spirit is good in the panel, training is going really well; we were tired there for a while, but you can see the freshness coming back into the legs now again. But this is the game, this is the key to it all. Clare won't be holding back, it's either going to make us or break us, and fellas know that."