John Gardiner (hurler)

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John Gardiner

Personal information
Sport	Hurling
Irish Name	Seán Ó Gairnéir
Date of Birth	1983
Place of birth	Farranree, Cork City, County Cork
Height	6'1"
Club information
Club	Na Piarsaigh
Position	Half-back
Club(s)*
Club	Years	Apps (scores)
Inter County
County	Cork
Position	Half-back
Inter County(ies)**
County	Years	Apps (scores)
Cork	2002-	23 (1-27)
Inter County Titles
Munster Titles	3
All-Ireland	2
All-Stars	1
* club appearances and scores correct as of . **Inter County team apps and scores correct as of December 8, 2006.

John Gardiner (born 1983) is an Irish sportsman. He is a half-back on the Cork senior hurling team.

John Gardiner was born in Cork in 1983. He was educated locally and later worked as an official with Allied Irish Bank. He laso attended Cork Institute of Technology. From an early age he showed a talent for Gaelic Games and he soon joined his local GAA club, Na Piarsaigh. Gardiner was soon spotted by the inter-county selectors and became a dual star at minor level in 2000. That year he won Munster Minor Hurling and Munster Minor Football medals, and later an All-Ireland Minor Football medal as a member of the panel. He was earmarked to make it on to the senior hurling team after he produced a fantastic exhibition of centre-back play during the All-Ireland minor victory over Galway in 2001. Gardiner made his championship debut with the Cork Senior hurlers as a substitute in an All-Ireland qualifier against Limerick in 2002, subsequently lining out at centre-back when Cork, showing little or no appetite for battle, were eliminated by Galway in the second round of the qualifiers that year.

Gardiner started at midfield in all of Cork’s championship games in 2003, winning his first senior Munster Championship medal, however, Cork went on to lose to Kilkenny in the All-Ireland final. Gardiner, however, was always more suited to a defensive role, and he has been a permanent fixture in the half-back line since he shone there after swapping positions with Tom Kenny for the second half of the 2004 Munster semi-final against Limerick. Cork later went on to lose the Munster final but win the All-Ireland final, with Gardiner collecting his first All-Ireland winners medal. More success followed in 2005 when Gardiner won his second set of Munster Championship and All-Ireland Championship medals with Cork. In what has been described as his best championshio to date he finished off the year with his first All-Star Award, as well as being named as the players' player of the year. The 2006 Championship saw Gardiner claim his third Munster medal. He later played in his fourth All-Ireland final in-a-row in the hope of collecting a third winners' medal in-a-row. On the day, however, Kilkenny proved too strong and defeated Cork by a goal.

Preceded by Seán Óg Ó hAilpín (Cork)

Gaelic Players' Association Hurler of the Year 2005

Succeeded by Henry Shefflin (Kilkenny)

	Cork - All-Ireland Hurling Champions 2004 (29th title)
1 D. Óg Cusack | 2 W. Sherlock | 3 D. O'Sullivan | 4 B. Murphy | 5 J. Gardiner | 6 R. Curran | 7 S. Óg Ó hAilpín | 8 J. O'Connor | 9 T. Kenny | 10 B. O'Connor (Capt.) | 11 N. McCarthy | 12 T. McCarthy | 13 K. Murphy | 14 B. Corcoran | 15 J. Deane | Subs: J. Browne | Manager: D. O'Grady

	Cork - All-Ireland Hurling Champions 2005 (30th title)
1 D. Óg Cusack | 2 P. Mulcahy | 3 D. O'Sullivan | 4 B. Murphy | 5 J. Gardiner | 6 R. Curran | 7 S. Óg Ó hAilpín (Capt.) | 8 T. Kenny | 9 J. O'Connor | 10 B. O'Connor | 11 N. McCarthy | 12 T. McCarthy | 13 K. Murphy | 14 B. Corcoran | 15 J. Deane | Subs: N. Ronan | K. Murphy | Manager: J. Allen

	Cork Senior Hurling Team 2006
1 D. Óg Cusack | 2 B. Murphy | 3 D. O'Sullivan | 4 P. Mulcahy (Capt.) | 5 J. Gardiner | 6 R. Curran | 7 S. Óg Ó hAilpín | 8 T. Kenny | 9 J. O'Connor | 10 T. McCarthy | 11 N. McCarthy | 12 N. Ronan | 13 B. O'Connor | 14 B. Corcoran | 15 J. Deane | 16 M. Coleman | 17 W. Sherlock | 18 C. O'Connor | 19 P. Kelly | 20 K. Hartnett | 21 K. Murphy | 22 C. Naughton | 23 C. Cusack | 24 P. Cronin | 25 A. Nash | 26 K. Murphy | 27 S. O'Neill | 28 C. McGann | 29 K. Cronin | Manager: J. Allen