What made O'Grady and Allen successful during their respective spells as Cork hurling manager, Carey mused? "I've only just begun this area of research and will, I suspect, never really stop digging.

Especially as long as there are others who have so much to offer and as long as I have so much to learn."

BELIEVE IT OR NOT BUT HENDRIX WAS A HURLER

Kudos to the Omagh firm Squareball, who've launched a line of fashionable GAA sportswear that includes hoodies, zip-up jackets and t-shirts, the latter bearing slogans such as "Take your points and the goals will come" and "Hill 16".

(Sideline Cuts is wearing a fetching cloud-blue cotton number inscribed "Hendrix was a hurler", complete with an illustration of the great man with hurley in hand, as he types. ) Great concept. Full details on www. squareball. com.

CANNING FOLLOWS BASKETBALL'S BEST

Curious one at the Adidas hurling launch the other day. You had the usual suspects . . . from Cork, Sean Og and Ben and Jerry; from Kilkenny, JJ and Tommy Walsh;

from Tipp, Eoin Kelly; and from Waterford, Ken. But there was no one from Clare, or Limerick, or Wexford. And the one from Galway? Joe Canning, who, as he made no secret of, hasn't even played senior for the county yet.

What does that say? Well, for one, it says everything about where Clare, Limerick, Wexford and Galway are right now and it also says a lot about how the sportswear giants feel about Canning's potential.

This, afterall, is an organisation that was trumped by Nike, who signed Michael Jordan before he entered the NBA and who were paying LeBron James to wear their gear before he was 16.

The future isn't quick coming along . . . and repaying the foresight of its sponsors. Last Thursday, 22-year-old James scored the Cleveland Cavalier's last 25 points, including a buzzer-beating lay-up, to give them a 109-107 win over the Detroit Pistons and go within one game of qualifying for the NBA finals. Already they're calling his 48-points display one of the greatest in the sport's history. As good as Jordan's best, even.

Now, who, in a few years time, could do something similar in hurling?

Mind you, Jordan, LeBron. No pressure, Joe.