Breen could have been a Rebel

By Thomas Conway

No team is complete without a bullet-proof corner-back, and in Michael Breen, Tipperary have their man.

Playing styles have evolved, the position has been elevated, and specialists like Seán Finn and Mikey Butler have mopped up All Stars. All going well, after the 2025 season culminates, maybe we’ll be able to add Michael Breen to that specialist list.

In many ways it’s little the Ballina man has ended up in the corner. The 31-year-old is as powerful as he is explosive, as tenacious as he is skilful. With a deft touch and searing pace, he might just be your proto-type modern day corner-back.

He might just be your proto-type athlete as well. So says his former PE teacher and coach at St Anne's Community College Killaloe, John Gleeson, a man with a forensic knowledge of Gaelic games, basketball, and performance sport.

“He could have been an Olympian,” Gleeson feels.

“From a physical standpoint he could easily have been an Olympic athlete.

“He is a supreme athlete. He ticks all the boxes - he is extremely powerful, extremely explosive. He’s got great balance, great coordination. He’s got that polish, as an athlete, in terms of his ability to explode, and to move. He is supreme that way.

“The second thing then is all personality. He had an absolutely unerring commitment to training, absolutely unerring.

“And if you put those two things together, with a naturally competitive personality as well, then you’re in business. You’re really giving yourself every chance of playing at a very, very high level.”

Cork born

Born in Cork on July 16th, 1994, there is more than a degree of irony in the fact that Breen - who as a child would have turned up to Ballina training donning a Cork jersey and hailing his Corkonian roots - will now face the Rebels in this most intriguing of All-Ireland finals.

Bear in mind that the two-time All-Ireland winner would have grown up idolising the likes of Sean Óg, Donal Óg and Ben O’Connor, all of whom were in their pomp back in that period from 2002 to 2005.

Breen, and indeed his father Mike, will be acutely aware that Cork’s twenty year famine has hurt the county big time. Last year’s loss stung them. Another defeat this year would be almost unconscionable.

But Breen’s allegiance to Ballina, and to Tipperary, was never in question. He was an immensely talented juvenile hurler, and together with Tipperary football captain Steven O’Brien, formed the axis of many a Ballina underage side.

From under-12 to under-16, he spent time across the core positions - centre-back, midfield, centre-forward - but he generally came to be regarded as a forward. His pace, or rather his explosiveness, was probably his defining element, and his goal scoring antics were beyond sensational - as John notes.

“When he would get the ball 30/35 metres from goal, he would just go, streak through and score.

“His speed and power just allowed him to cover that ground so quickly, to the extent that he probably - from the age of about thirteen to eighteen - scored more goals than points. I honestly believe that.”

Tipperary

When William Maher and the Tipperary minor management team were on the look out for a full-back in late 2011, they decided to audition the fiery haired Ballina man.

Initially the move confounded many locally - why on Earth were they confining a combustible speed-merchant who could score sidelines for fun to the full-back line?

As it happens, it worked beautifully. Tipperary stormed to the 2012 All-Ireland title, defeating a Dublin side which largely revolved around dual star Ciarán Kilkenny.

A year later, Breen would help Ballina land an historic county intermediate crown. Ballina were now a senior club.

Two years later, Mikey was a Tipperary senior hurler, making his championship debut against Limerick and netting a goal from play.

In his early years as a senior inter-county hurler, there were fears that his lack of a concrete position might militate against him, but in the long run, his versatility has proven to be one of his greatest assets. He has flourished this year in particular, snapping Rhys Shelly short puck-outs and curtailing opposition forwards with aplomb. John Gleeson feels he maybe hasn’t been given the credit he rightly deserves.

“I think he’s been excellent,” he added.

“He’s been kind of a bit of an unsung hero in many ways. What he’s really good at is standing up forwards. When a forward runs at Mikey, he’s in control of that situation. His footwork and his explosive ability to change direction and his balance, are so quick that he’s actually able to get his centre of gravity between him and the attacking player. So, he’s just a really good man-marker from that point of view.”

Added to that, when Breen bursts forward from the back, it sometimes feels like he could keep going to eternity. John suggests having a go at doing so, or at least copying his co-worker in the full-back line, Eoghan Connolly, who frequently marauds out into the middle third and picks off points.

“What I’d love to see him doing a little bit more of is the Connolly role - where if he does end up out the field, on the ball, that he takes it on a little bit longer, because he ain’t going to be caught. If he can get a run, and break a tackle, he ain’t going to be caught”Gleeson said.

Considerate and unassuming

Off the field, Breen is a well-spoken, considerate, and unassuming character who also spent a year at Castletroy College, before going to UCC for third level, earning a Master’s in food business, but now works as a secondary school teacher.

John isn’t surprised he chose the teaching pathway, also noting his involvement in Clonmel High School’s Munster Under 19 ‘B’ hurling title earlier this year.

“He always had a real connection with kids,” Gleeson added.

“In a kind of a natural way. He just had that sense of caring, that sense of ‘look, I can show you something here, I can give you something here, I’m here for you, I’m here in the best interests of you.’ He just has that.

“And he did very well with Clonmel High School as well, he was one of the main guys involved with them last year. And to be honest that doesn’t just happen by accident.”

Breen’s relationship with Newport Olympian Sharlene Mawdsley has caught the eye of the national media, and the duo are fast becoming Ireland’s most talked about sporting couple. And what’s not to like? Two intelligent and articulate athletes, both with an unwavering dedication to their respective sports and an understanding of what it takes to succeed at an elite level. Their mantlepiece - adorned with medals from All-Ireland’s to European Gold, a third senior Celtic Cross would fit in quite nicely indeed.