Tipperary - Munster Minor Hurling champions. Back row: Jack Marnell, Austin Duff, Leelan Donoghue, Patrick Hackett, David McSweeney, Billy O’Brien, Evan Sherlock, Owen O’Dwyer, Aaron Cagney, Adam Ryan, Toby Corbett, David Ryan, Stefan Tobin, Jake Donnelan Houlihan, Euan Murray, Conor Grace, Billy O’Brien, Kyle O’Dowd, Dylan Hennessy. Front row: Kieran Rossiter, Philip O’Dwyer, Eoghan Doughan, Cillian Minogue, Conor Kennedy, Killian Cantwell, Shane Ryan, Tiarnan Ryan, Patrick Ryan, Cathal O’Reilly (captain), Darragh O’Hora, Paul Cummins, Joe O’Dwyer, Sean Walsh, Ryne Bargary, Jack Cahill, Michael Collins, Daire English, Paddy McCormack.

Captain O’Reilly pleased give county a lift

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By Stephen Barry

Tipperary minor hurling captain Cathal O’Reilly described lifting the John Doyle Cup as “the stuff you dream of” after their hard-fought Munster final victory over Clare.

It was extra fitting, too, for a Holycross/Ballycahill defender to bring the new trophy back to Doyle’s homeplace.

“Just disbelief,” was how O’Reilly described the feeling.

“This is stuff you dream of, walking up to lift a Munster minor trophy.

“It’s a proud moment for me being captain of the Tipp team, especially as a Holycross-Ballycahill man. I’m just delighted with it.”

He added: “I wouldn’t say there were nerves. It was more being ambitious to bring it home. We trained in Holycross on Thursday coming up to it.

“You’d always be curious about John Doyle. His name is on the clubhouse. You’d be asking questions at home to the parents, and they’d be telling you how good a hurler he was and how much he won.”

Another Holycross defender, Cathal Barrett, is a model for O’Reilly’s game. His choice of a green helmet can be attributed to the senior star.

“He was at my birthday party when I was younger, so he was definitely an inspiration,” O’Reilly revealed.

“I’d be watching his gameplay, seeing what he does, and trying to replicate it.”

The full-back was central to a defensive effort Barrett himself would be delighted with to hold Clare out. The Banner had taken Tipp for four goals in the round-robin meeting in Thurles, including a hat-trick for dangerman Liam Murphy. O’Reilly was entrusted with that man-marking job in Limerick and came up with a serious of heroic blocks.

“We knew we’d have to keep out the goals if we wanted to win,” added the Tipp skipper.

“They scored four against us the last day. It’s hard to beat any team when they’ve scored four goals.

“We had done plenty of training on it, getting bodies around. It’s very hard for them to score a goal when there’s three or four lads around you. That was the main focus, getting bodies around them.

“We were trying hard to keep out the goals in this game and it worked that way, thank God.

“We were lucky enough to get two ourselves so that really helped with the win.”

O’Reilly was equally happy to give Tipp hurling a lift after the seniors’ heavy loss on Sunday.

“It was a bad day for Tipp hurling yesterday losing by that much to Cork. We had to produce a win here to lift up the spirits in Tipp.”

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