In the beginning was Pat McLoughney. He can't say for definite that he was the first intercounty hurling goalkeeper to wear a helmet but, on the basis that none of his contemporaries in the late 1970s wore one – not John Nolan, not Damien Martin, not Martin Coleman, not Noel Skehan – there isn't a more obvious claimant to the title. McLoughney, incidentally, is also the man who won two All Stars despite never finishing on the winning side in a championship match, a quirk easily explicable by the fact that this was 1979-80 and he was from Tipperary. Three decades later he's finding himself the answer to all manner of trivia questions and fielding phone calls from national newspapers. He didn't see that one coming.

Anyway, McLoughney's goalie-with-the-helmet backstory was simple enough. The helmet preceded the goalkeeping.

Having hurled minor at wing-forward for Tipp and done so without a helmet, McLoughney was minding his own business one day with the Shannon Rovers under-21s when a neighbour arrived with a helmet and a spare. Out of curiosity McLoughney wore the spare. Not only did he like the feel of it, he was doubly grateful when he shipped a belt to the head. The helmet split; his head didn't.

Shortly afterwards the regular goalie got injured and McLoughney stepped into the breach, complete with helmet. A couple of years later he was keeping goal for the county and being mentioned by Micheál O'Hehir during one match commentary as "one of the only fellas on the field wearing a helmet".

Lengthy was the slagging he received back home in the pub that night.

That was just about the only time the helmet came in for comment, McLoughney reports. "It was never an issue. No opponent ever said anything. Not even someone in the crowd."

The helmet, a black Cooper, had originated in Canada and was designed for ice hockey. Although it wasn't particularly well padded, it gave McLoughney "great confidence". Critically, it didn't have a visor, meaning he had full visibility. When helmets with visors made their appearance a few years later he tried one on "and couldn't hack it. Imagine the full-forward standing on the edge of the square and your vision being impaired by wearing a visor."

Therein lies the obvious potential rub for the goalkeepers of the nation. From 1 January next, all hurlers in all grades will be obliged to wear helmets complete with faceguard before they take the field of play. No exceptions, no exemptions, no hard-luck cases.

All hurlers. That includes you, Ben O'Connor and Jerry O'Connor and Padraic Maher and Pa Bourke, all of whom had discarded their helmets before the end of the Newtownshandrum/Thurles Sarsfields game last Sunday (not to mention a certain Thurles sub who wasn't wearing one in the first place). That includes you, Michael Kavanagh, who wore one during his debut intercounty season in 1998 but discarded it the following season and hasn't gone back for it.

That includes you, John Mullane, who wore red headgear on his championship debut against Limerick in 2001 but wasn't wearing it when he sustained a serious eye injury against Wexford in the qualifiers at Nowlan Park two years later, reverted to a helmet for the 2004 National League and "didn't find it too bad", endured a stinker in the final versus Galway that he "more or less blamed on the helmet" and consequently eschewed its use the following Sunday on a warm afternoon in Thurles when Waterford murdered Clare. That, naturally, was the end of that.

And that certainly includes you, Brendan Cummins, who only ever wears a helmet when he's playing wing-forward for the bank against the Defence Forces. He borrows one from Barry O'Gorman, the Ballybacon-Grange corner-back, down the road on his way to the match. He leaves it back to O'Gorman on the way home. What will it be like wearing one full-time? Cummins "doesn't have a clue".

All he knows is that he trotted back from the half-forward line to stand in goal for a penalty during one of those bank games and it was "a weird enough sensation" being there on the line in a helmet.

The faceguard will be the issue, says Ger Cunningham, who wore a helmet for a season or two a decade after McLoughney. In his case it wasn't a lifestyle choice; against Waterford in the championship replay in 1989 he'd been concussed ("a collision with Pat Murphy from Tallow, I think – I've never seen it since and to this day I have no recollection of what happened"). Once bitten, twice shy. As it turned out, a helmet didn't prove to be any inconvenience for a man who'd worn one in a previous life as an underage forward with St Finbarr's, even if by 1992 he'd decided it had outlived its usefulness. Still, he's not envious of any of the older intercounty dogs who'll be obliged to learn new tricks.

"The faceguard is the big change really," according to Cunningham. "Having a couple of bars across your face is a big ask for goalies, especially lads coming to the end of their careers. It'll take them a while to get used to it."

It took Adrian Power, the Waterford under-21 goalie, a while and he wasn't coming to the end of his career. Only in the last couple of seasons has Power worn the full-faceguard helmet. It was, he reveals, difficult enough to get used to initially. "Thankfully the bars on it were spaced well enough apart, so it didn't affect me that much."

The main advantage, he found, was the additional security and confidence the helmet imparted when he went up for a high ball. Any disadvantage? "If you come off your line it can be hard enough to see a corner-forward slipping in behind you."

Will goalkeepers have a problem next year because of the faceguard? Might the early stages of the National League be attended by the same kind of rush of goals as the opening phase of this season's Premiership was, allegedly the result of the new, lighter ball? In that case, Pat McLoughney wonders, will goalkeepers be forced to get together and formulate their own full-visibility helmet?

That teething troubles of one form or another will arise come springtime is a given. The GAA accept that there may be "some initial disquiet", with Dr Danny Mulvihill of the Association's medical committee going as far as to concede that goalkeepers could experience "problems with the sight of the ball".

A helmet for goalkeepers designed by goalkeepers does not exist. It may eventually do so.

At any rate the possibility should be brought up as an item for discussion, according to John Molloy of Azzurri, whose standard IS355-approved hurling helmet was launched in recent months and is available nationwide.

"Goalkeepers have a different need to outfield players. The biggest issue is the faceguard. Might it be obstructive? This has to be looked at. Every product must be developed to the end user's need."

To different folk, different strokes. John Mullane worries about hot summer days when sweating players won't be able to take off their helmet and fling it out over the sideline as before.

Brian Murray of Limerick, who did his underage hurling with the county in the forward line, has a white helmet and is "thinking of getting another one just to get used to it".

Brendan Cummins has been promised a few models to roadtest and is looking forward to pucking around in them. "I've heard there may be a blind spot somewhere along the line. Is that scaremongering? I don't know."

Michael Kavanagh reckons his helmet has cobwebs on it at this stage but reports that at least his mother will be pleased by the new rule. "She's always on to me to go back wearing a helmet."

Apropos of the original of the species, Pat McLoughney isn't totally sure what became of his helmet. One of his hurleys, he knows, is in the Sam Melbourne museum. But that old black Cooper? He pauses for contemplation. "Long gone. I've a feeling the dog might have got to it years ago…"

Another trivia question in the offing.

emcevoy@tribune.ie