Diamond anniversary of a golden Tipperary team

By Liam Hogan

This year marks the 60th anniversary of Tipperary’s most successful ever team when in 1965, the Premier County won their fourth All-Ireland Senior Hurling title in five years, defeating Wexford in the decider at Croke Park on September 5th, 1965.

In winning a 21st All-Ireland title, Tipp had come of age, and they did it with a run of just three games, two in Munster, with no All-Ireland semi-final, progressing straight to the final on the first Sunday in September.

The story began the year before, September 1964, when skipper Michael Murphy had the MacCarthy Cup safely tucked away after the All-Ireland Final win over Kilkenny.

Meanwhile, Tipp’s under 21s had ventured safely through the mild waters of the inaugural championship. They had scored a massive 32-30 in wins over Cork, Clare, and Waterford, to win the Munster title before making light work of Roscommon in the All-Ireland semi-final.

They travelled to Nowlan Park for the final and easily defeated Wexford 8-9 to 3-1. The talent of the team was impressive with six of the side going on to feature in the 1965 senior final ten months later, Len Gaynor, Michael Roche, Michael ‘Babs’ Keating, Noel O’Gorman, Peter O’Sullivan, and John Dillon.

Following the senior All-Ireland in in 1964, Tipp completed the grand slam for the year by winning the Oireachtas title. The Oireachtas competition was very prestigious at the time; teams were invited to participate – usually those at the top end of the ladder, and on 13th September 1964, Tipp defeated Dublin in the semi-final at Croke Park, 2-11 to 2-4. Tipp lined out with eight of the All-Ireland winning team.

Kilkenny were the opposition in the Oireachtas final on 18th October in Croke Park, six weeks after the All-Ireland Final. The final was regarded as the game of the year; Tipp were pushed hard in the opening half but came back to lead 3-5 to 3-2 at half time. The second half was much the same with Kilkenny outscoring Tipp but not enough to deny the blue and gold who won 5-7 to 4-8.

The Tipp team showed two changes from the successful All-Ireland fifteen win with Len Gaynor benefitting from an injury to Mick Burns at right wing back, while Liam Devaney replaced Larry Kiely, and operated at right corner forward, allowing Donie Nealon take over at eleven in place of the Gortnahoe/Glengoole clubman.

For the record the winning team was: John O’Donoghue; John Doyle, Michael Maher, Kieran Carey; Len Gaynor, Tony Wall, Michael Murphy; Theo English, Mick Roche; Jimmy Doyle, Donie Nealon, Michael Keating, Liam Devaney, John Mackey McKenna, Sean McLoughlin.

Club Scene

In the midst of the fanfare, there was the 1964 club championship where Francis Loughnane’s Roscrea defeated West champions Eire Og Anacarty in one of only two quarter finals played. John Doyle’s Holycross/Ballycahill defeated Theo English’s Marlfield by a narrow margin.

Mick Burns led Eire Og Nenagh to a North final win, and they drew with Holycross in the first county semi-final in Nenagh. The replay was played at the same venue in front of an estimated 6,000 spectators with the Mid champions winners, after extra time. The other semi-final saw Thurles Sarsfields defeat Roscrea, also in Nenagh. The County final was played at Thurles on 15th November with Sarsfields emerging easy winners in front of 10,000 spectators.

National League

Tipperary’s National League campaign commenced on November 22nd, defeating Clare 8-10 to 2-4 in Nenagh. A Mackey McKenna goal in the 58th minute helped Tipp defeat Cork a week later, 4-8 to 2-12.

At the start of 1965, the selection committee was ratified with the legendary Paddy Leahy, joined by Phil Dwyer, Jim Stapleton, PJ Kenny, and Martin Kennedy in situ.

The league re-commenced on February 7th when Tipperary defeated Galway 4-12 to 0-9 in Ballinasloe. Three wins out of three qualified them for the semi-finals. Meanwhile, a very strong Tipp fifteen suffered defeat against a Rest of Ireland selection in an annual charity game involving the All-Ireland champions.

Ten Tipp players made the Munster team for the Railway Cup final on St. Patricks Day, but they lost heavily to holders Leinster, 3-11 to 0-9. The ten were: John O’Donoghue, John Doyle, Kieran Carey, Tony Wall, Theo English, Mick Roche, Jimmy Doyle, Michael Keating, Liam Devaney, and Sean McLoughlin. With that number of Tipperary players on the team, the size of the defeat was unexpected. Leinster included seven Kilkenny players and Wexford had four on the winning side.

The League resumed on April 4th, but Tipperary lost the chance to be group winners after losing to Kilkenny in Thurles, 7-10 to 5-7. It was Tipp’s first defeat in either league or championship in 21 months, as over 20,000 patrons attended as Tipp were at full.

Tipp’s semi-final opponents were Waterford with the clash held in Croke Park on May 9th. Tipp won convincingly 2-18 to 1-9.

On May 23rd, the National League ‘Home’ final was another Tipp versus Kilkenny meeting. Croke Park was the venue as over 40,000 spectators saw a close run first half. Tipp led 0-7 to 0-5 at half time but pulled away in the second to win 3-14 to 2-8.

Tipp lined out as follows: John O’Donoghue; Doyle, Maher, Carey; Mick Burns, Tony Wall, Len Gaynor; Theo English, Mick Roche; Jimmy Doyle, Larry Kiely, Liam Devaney; Donie Nealon, John Mackey McKenna, Sean McLoughlin.

The official League final would be played later in the year in America.

Tournaments

In preparation for the championship, Tipp were involved in three tournament games.

On April 25th, the defeated Wexford 3-12 to 2-5 in New Ross. The game helped raise funds for the Kennedy Memorial Library.

It was back to Nowlan Park on April 30th when Kilkenny beat Tipp 4-12 to 4-10.

From there, the annual Wembley game on Whit Weekend saw Tipp lose to the Noresiders 2-12 to 1-8 in front of 30,000 spectators in London.

Munster Championship

Tipp received a bye to the Munster semi-final when they defeated Clare 5-8 to 3-3 in Limerick on June 27th.

The team showed one change from the League final win with Mackey McKenna replacing of Larry Kiely. With goals by Donie Nealon and Mick Roche Tipp led 2-4 to 0-1 at half time. Two goals by Sean McLoughlin helped keep Tipp very much in charge.

On July 25th, the Munster final against Cork attracted over 40,000 spectators to Limerick in what turned out to be a very one-sided game as Tipp won 4-11 to 0-5 with Theo English and Sean McLoughlin scoring a pair of goals each. The team was the same as the semi-final fifteen except for Paddy Doyle replacing Michael ‘Babs’ Keating who had sustained a broken arm in a football game. Larry Kiely was another absentee.

Meanwhile, Wexford caused an upset in the Leinster Championship final a week later as they defeated three-in-a-row chasing Kilkenny, 2-11 to 3-7 at Croke Park.

It led to a third Tipperary v Wexford All-Ireland final in six years. The 1965 final had created much public interest with John Doyle in line to win his eighth Celtic Cross, joining Christy Ring at the top of the roll of honour.

In addition, Tipp were in line to create another record, becoming the first hurling county to win 21 All-Ireland titles.

Other records to be created were seven of the team going for their fifth medal; Michael Maher, Tony Wall, Kieran Carey, Theo English, Jimmy Doyle, Donie Nealon and Liam Devaney.

In contrast, this Wexford team would have nine players making their first appearance in an All-Ireland final in a team that had the experienced Pat Nolan, Ned Colfer, Tom Neville, Phil Wilson, Jimmy O’Brien, and Ollie McGrath.

September 5th came, and Tipperary lined out with just one change from the Munster final win as Larry Kiely returned from illness in place of Paddy Doyle.

Captain Jimmy Doyle won the toss and decided to face the breeze. Doyle had Tipp in front with a free after forty seconds. The shape of the game changed around the uarter hour when Sean McLoughlin scored a goal, adding a second a minute later as his palmed effort beat Pat Nolan.

There was the also the trouble caused by John ‘Mackey’ McKenna at full forward as Tipp led 2-5 to 0-6 half time.

Martin Codd opened the scoring with a free inside a minute of the restart but points by McKenna and a Theo English sideline ball from fifty yards followed. Tipp went seven in front, but a Shannon point had the deficit back to six.

Points by Jimmy Doyle (free) and Liam Devaney had the margin out to eight but two points per Jimmy O’Brien had Wexford 2-10 to 0-10 in arrears with fifteen minutes remaining. The style of champions was about to appear and six unanswered points from Doyle, Devaney and McKenna, and Tipp were champions for the 21st time.

John Doyle’s record of winning eight All-Ireland medals was marked with the right corner back carried shoulder high off the pitch as Jimmy Doyle accepted the Liam MacCarthy Cup from Cardinal Conway.

Tipperary team to win 21st All-Ireland: John O’Donoghue; John Doyle, Michael Maher, Kieran Carey; Mick Burns, Tony Wall, Len Gaynor; Theo English 0-1 (sideline), Mick Roche; Jimmy Doyle 0-5 (5f), Larry Kiely 0-2, Liam Devaney 0-2; Donie Nealon, John Mackey McKenna 0-5, Sean McLoughlin 2-1.

New York

The Tipperary team flew across the Atlantic to play New York in the National Hurling League final proper. The first leg was played on September 19th, and they struggled to beat New York 4-10 to 2-11 in front of 7,500 spectators.

The second leg was played the following Sunday, but Tipp lost 3-9 to 2-9, but won the title on aggregate, 6-19 to 5-20.

The following month, Tipp went back to Croke Park for the Oireachtas Final on October 17th defeating Kilkenny 2-12 to 2-7, bringing to an end Tipp’s greatest era of success.