Former Cork hurling boss John Allen has hailed Ronan Curran as the outstanding centre half back of the past decade.

The St. Finbarr's clubman announced his retirement earlier this week after helping the Rebels to All-Ireland wins in 2003 and '05, the second of which was achieved under Allen's watch.

"Waterford's Ken McGrath would also stand out as a fantastic centre back, but I suppose given the fact we won two All-Irelands in that period, that he was the stand-out centre back," Allen said.

"It came to the stage, at both club and county, that teams were basing their tactics around not playing the ball down the centre towards Ronan Curran. The opposition could see he was very good in the air, had great hands and you kept the ball away from him at all costs." Tweet

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