Seán Brennan's crying game was a watershed moment in the Dublin goalkeeper's origin story.
The two-time All-Ireland club winner with Cuala recalls that his emotions got the better of him as a 15-year-old and it prompted the great change in his hurling career.
"I only went in goal in the hurling just after Féile," said Brennan, now 28, ahead of tomorrow's All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final clash with Carlow at Netwatch Cullen Park.
"I was a very, very average outfield hurler, warming the bench. I remember sitting out in DCU where the Féile was and I was crying because I wasn't playing.
"My dad goes, 'Why don't you go in goal?' or whatever, so I gave it a go and it worked out fairly alright."
By 2014 he was in the Dublin under-21 panel. Brennan says that, again, luck played a massive role in his climb up the ladder.
He was Cuala's minor goalkeeper two years previously, when he was 17 - and the club's senior keeper rolled his ankle on a sliotar just days before a county quarter-final.
Brennan was called up and, after a session on the eve of the game, he was shocked to be told he was starting.
"I didn't really know what to make of it at the time - it was pretty much a blur at that stage," he said.
"So I made my senior debut in 2012 at 17 against Craobh Chiaráin and never looked back - we got to the county final that year as well.
"It was good going, I kept my place then. The final was against Kilmacud and we were fairly well beaten. But it's worked out alright."
His dad's suggestion wasn't plucked from nowhere. Brennan played between the posts for St Joseph's Boys, the famous southside football academy.
He recalls team-mates Dylan Hayes and Sam Byrne went to England - Hayes to Leicester City and Derby before playing for Dundalk, Byrne to Manchester United before also coming home.
"That was a great experience," Brennan said. "For me as a goalkeeper, that's where I learned the fundamentals of it. Keeping the ball out of the back of the net is ultimately what your job is as a goalkeeper.
"Once you have that nailed down, the rest kind of looks after itself."
He stopped playing soccer seriously at 15, just lining out for local club Ballybrack Boys the odd Sunday morning, but finished up by the time he was 19.
Brennan played Gaelic Football too, but once he was brought into underage Dublin hurling panels that was that.
"Once I made the Dublin under-21 panel, that was it then. I focused purely on hurling," he said.
He lost two Leinster under-21 finals before winning one, in 2016, but senior county honours have eluded him.
Dublin came very close to making the Leinster final this summer but Galway clawed back a 12-point deficit to secure their place in the provincial decider, leaving the Dubs to deal with a potential banana skin against Carlow.
"There are so many positives to take from that game, that was the main thing," said Brennan.
"I don't think the Leinster games attract the same crowds as the Munster games. And when you're looking at that on telly, it might not seem as exciting. But when you delve into the quality on the pitch, it's every bit as good.
"There's no point in focusing too much on the negatives. We're still breathing and we live to fight another day. We need to show those learnings and improvements on Saturday.
"It's knockout hurling. There are no second chances, so you can't afford to go in complacent in any way. We learned the hard way in 2019 against Laois.
"Knockout hurling is where we want to be but it has to be right on the day."
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