In what must have been a bittersweet weekend for him with his native county, Tipperary, eliminated from the championship a day before he played a leading role in Dublin's first Leinster title since 1961, Ryan O'Dwyer realised that he had attained an additionally special status.
"Yeah, well, I suppose it's a good pub quiz question: who's after winning a Munster and a Leinster medal?"
During his years with Tipperary he started the county’s opening championship match in 2008, a first win in Cork since the 1920s, and although he subsided back into the panel afterwards he picked up a Munster medal.
Ironically with his own county struggling so badly for ball winners and physicality in attack, O’Dwyer is part of a ravenously acquisitive half-forward line.
His impact in Dublin since he came to the city to work as teacher and joined Kilmacud Crokes quickly outstripped that of his early career back home and he was man of the match in the 2011 league final success.
'Satisfaction'
His new career has meant a lot to him and his family.
“I suppose, like, my parents aren’t getting any younger. The satisfaction that it will give them, like, that’s, you know, when the final whistle blew that’s what I thought of, my parents and just how it will mean so much to them.”
For someone who has slotted into Anthony Daly’s team so seamlessly, he worried at first about being accepted.
“I didn’t know what way it was going to turn out. I was moving up here, living, working, I was lucky enough to get asked to play and I suppose I was going into the unknown. But I definitely haven’t looked back. There were some times last year I probably doubted it. But it makes it all worthwhile, days like this.”
O’Dwyer is sorry for his old Tipperary team-mates but conscious that the potential for emotional conflict within his family has now been removed.
“I was actually thinking that; I was disappointed for them because I have a soft spot for Tipp but I suppose when they got beat there was a bit of relief to be honest.
“And I don’t mean that in a bad way, but in a good way, because it just takes out the, I suppose, inconvenience of playing them.”
'We performed'
He is quick to point out that he's not the only Tipperary man still live in this year's championship. Manager Anthony Daly's backroom team includes 1987 Munster winning captain Richie Stakelum as selector and 2001 All-Ireland winning captain Tommy Dunne as coaching consultant.
“I’m not looking at any other team, we’re all looking at ourselves only, and it’s been like that since the start of the year: thinking about ourselves, our performance. Look, we performed.
"I know everyone says we had five games in five weeks but when it came to the end of the game we were the ones finishing stronger. It shows that Ross Dunphy, our physical trainer, has the work done, everyone has the work done over the winter months. It wasn't easy."
He says that the mistakes and presumptions of last year won’t be repeated.
"Looking back on last year I wish someone pulled me aside and hit me in the jaw or something because from the first Walsh Cup game I was talking about All-Irelands.
“This year now, no, it’s the semi-final now. Not even winning the semi-final – performing in the semi-final.
"Anthony Daly has admitted that himself. If we performed as well as we can today and didn't win then we'd say, 'fair enough, we were beaten by the better team'. So all we're focusing on is performance, we're not focusing on results."
