The Tipperary GAA (Club and Intercounty) Thread

Rasputin11 wrote: »

I heard the pubs didn't close in Borris last night

I think it was Ernest Hemingway who offered the advice "write about what you know". Not for the first time in my life I'm going to ignore good advice and offer my thoughts on a hurling match.

From the moment the teams arrived on the Bishops Field yesterday things seemed different. Despite this being first chance saloon for the Tipp management team, they seemed happy and relaxed as they took the pitch while Brian Cody had the face of a man who was already sitting on the loo when he discovered there was no toilet paper on the roll.

There had been a lot of comment before the game on referee Brian Gavin, a ref notorious for letting the game and himself go. Many experts believed that his appointment favoured Kilkenny. I remained unconvinced because under Mick Ryan it is Tipperary who are doing the hitting rather than waiting to be hit and if Gavin remained true to form, which in fairness I think he did, then the Offaly mans appointment wasn't going to be an issue for Tipp.

Although the opening exchanges were nervous enough they still provided a few moments of sublime skill. Bubbles point from a sideline had anyone over the age of 40 scratching their heads in awe, Seamus Kennedy added a point from out around the airport while Seamie's point after two sublime touches will live long in the memory.

The teams were level 10 times during a tense first half but Tipp went in for the Jaffa Cakes leading 14 to 12. Yet half time is a tense affair for Tipp supporters. We had out hurled the Nore men but we were only 2 points up. We have been brainwashed to believe that Kilkenny are physically and mentally stronger than us and if it remained close coming towards the end we would be in trouble despite having outplayed the Cats.

We needn't have worried.

As soon as Brian Gavin rang the bell to start the 2nd half, 15 men in Blue and Gold got their wings.

Even a Kevin Kelly goal couldn't stop this Tipp team yesterday. Over the next 15 minutes we outscore Kilkenny 2.09 to 0.02.

In the 47th minute Bubbles gave Paul Murphy the slip and logic dictated that he should take his point but as so often before, Bubbles cast logic to the wind and buried it in the bottom corner.

I have been a Noel McGrath fan for a long time now. For me, picking Tipp team without Noel McGrath would be like buying a car without a steering wheel. I have also long believed that like the praying mantis he has eyes in the back of his head. His pass to his brother John was up there with his pass to Lar in 2010 while his point in the first half is further proof that this man could hurl in a phone box.

Speaking of his brother John, he is picked at corner forward but interprets his brief liberally. He seems to pop up everywhere to good effect. I see Michael Duignan named him as his hurler of the year last night on the Sunday Game. I tend to agree with the Offaly pundit. He hadn't a bad game all year and finished the year with 6:38 in 10 league and championship games.

Dan McCormack and Bonnar Maher continue to do unpaid and unpensionable jobs for Mick Ryan. They may be uncut diamonds but they are diamonds none the less. Without the diamonds there would be no engagement.

I don't have the words to describe Seamie Callinan's performance on Sunday. One of the all time great All Ireland Final performances from a man at the very top of his game. From the 2nd minute of the game it was clear that Cody's decision to put Joey Holden on him was the worst match up since Thomasheen Sean Rua tried to match Sean Dota and Sive in the John B Keane’s play of the same name. While Holden may not be solely responsible for the death of the Kilkenny full back line, he is certainly helping with the enquires.

In our own back line, James Barry, a man who looks like a baddie in a Clint Eastwood western, continues to redefine the full back position in the same way that Donal Og and Stephen Cluxton redefined the goalkeeping positions in their respective codes. At first glance he appears to be too good a hurler to play full back but he brings guile and pace to a position normally associated with force and ignorance and possesses that wonderful ability of always looking like he knows what he is doing. He patrols his zone with the alertness of a parish priest at a 1950's ceili and is well backed up by his two curates Fr Barrett and Fr Cahill.

It wouldn’t surprise me if in years to come we hear that every time Helen Maher made her maternity dash to the hospital there was a strange star in the sky and three wise men were rushing from the East. While all the other children in Thurles were on formula milk, Paudie and Ronan were on Golden Maverick. Luckily for Helen she doesn’t have to pick a favourite son this week as one was as good as the other and both were brilliant.

Seamus Kennedy is not unknown to me and often described as a footballer come hurler. Football has been very good to Seamus and when he was cut from the hurling panel a few years ago, he was a very welcome addition to the football panel where the strength and conditioning he received has stood him in good stead. But make no mistake about it, Seamus Kennedy is a hurler first and foremost and to describe him as anything else is dipping into the Ger Loughnane box of insults. It's time Seamus started getting credit for the wonderful hurler he is.

My only complaint with Brian Gavin on the day was that he blew the final whistle. I could have happily sat and watched that exhibition of hurling for at least another hour. There is no record of William Shakespeare being a Tipp hurling fan but when Hamlet spoke of a “divinity that shapes our ends” he may well have been referring to Mick Ryan and his management team as the Gods that gave the final shape to the plans carefully laid down by Eamon O’Shea over the past few years. O’Shea’s contribution to the development of this Tipp team should not be forgotten but it is Ryan and Co who shaped our ends.