Ten All-Irelands and 11 All-Stars all have their stories to tell and those tales are relayed by Henry Shefflin in his self-titled autobiography.
The Kilkenny hurling legend joined Off The Ball's Joe Molloy to look back on an epic career which featured incredible and regular highs, but also a number of challenges.
One of the areas Shefflin spoke candidly about was the period of his career when he learnt about the cross-section between lifestyle off the pitch and its impact on it.
"It was of its time. The chipper thing was a bit of a routine because I went there before and played well in my first match so I sort of continued it for a while, which caught up with me eventually both in my waistline and in my performances," he said, before explaining how he worked through it with the help of manager Brian Cody.
Kilkenny's Henry Shefflin celebrates his 9th all Ireland medal after the game ©INPHO/Lorraine O'Sullivan
"I'd put on a bit of weight and people were saying 'he looks tired'. I did look tired because I wasn't very fit. But Brian [Cody] was able to identify it, so even from an early age, he was able to identify those kind of things."
Shefflin also went on to discuss another turning point inspired by the drive of Cody - putting an end to a rare fallow spell for Kilkenny's seniors in the years leading up to 2006.
"There were a lot of question marks about the Kilkenny team, the Cork team had really took over at this stage and everyone was talking about how good Cork were and the game they were playing, so it was a big year for a lot of us - me included. That evening, leading up we'd won the Leinster championship, Galway were there and we were going to be playing Galway in the All-Ireland quarter-finals. So we knew it was now or never," Shefflin reminisced about a meeting at Monart.
"But that evening really challenged us and we had thought things had being going well, but [Cody] stepped it up to another level and pushed us outside our comfort zone in the sense that he started challenging players, 'you've your All-Stars, your Players of the Years but you're not performing' and there was only two of us in the room with a Player of the Year so it was either me or JJ Delaney. I was very, 'that's not right and I am going well', but then you second-guess yourself and go 'maybe he's right a little bit' and that's the genius of him."
Shefflin also gave his insight into the rivalry with Cork, having admitted in the book that the Rebels and Kilkenny didn't have an "adult relationship" as would have existed with other counties.
"But what I would put in that is that that was a team. Definitely the teams didn't have a relationship. I would feel players definitely did," he revealed.
The 36-year-old also shared some of the mental challenges in terms of maintaining his high standards within a globe of expectation and pressure, revealing the sheer nerves he felt before the four-in-a-row final against Tipperary.
"I remember that Thursday evening and my legs were just gone. They felt like jelly," he said.
Shefflin also discussed the motivation behind releasing the book and the process in putting it together.
You can listen to the full interview via the podcast.
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