Quirke’s memory to the fore in victory celebrations

By Stephen Barry

At half six on Sunday, after the Croke Park stands had emptied, three Tipperary players re-emerged onto the pitch. Conor Stakelum, Craig Morgan, and Brian McGrath walked out to the centre of the field, chatting, and carrying with them the Dillon Quirke Foundation bainisteoir’s bib. They paused on the halfway line for a photo before strolling back to the changing-room celebrations.

On the greatest day of their hurling lives, their fallen teammate was with them.

Midfielder Stakelum was a teammate of Quirke’s all the way up through the grades. They played alongside each other for All-Ireland minor and under 21 successes. That moment was their way of sharing in the celebrations together again after winning the biggest prize of all.

The Friday prior, before training, Stakelum was among those who headed down the road to Rossmore to visit Quirke’s family.

“We’d be close to Dan and Hazel,” he revealed.

“A couple of us went down on Friday before training. We had a cup of tea and a scone. They were just buzzing for the game.

“It’s obviously very hard for Dan, Hazel, Kelly, and Shannon. If things were different, Dillon would be here today, and no better man to enjoy it with us if he was here.

“That was something we decided to do on Friday, and it was lovely to do that before the game.”

During that conversation, memories of the famous 2018 under 21 final against Cork were discussed. They came to Stakelum’s mind again on Sunday as the team bus made its way to Croke Park.

“Dillon was playing that day, and we were just chatting about that match. When we were on the bus and it started to rain… it was raining that day too,” he recalls.

“A lot of us were there that day, a lot of those great Cork players were playing that day, and we just said we’d have another crack at them.”

The build-up was full of those nice moments of enjoyment. Stakelum and his teammates certainly didn’t pull the curtains on the excitement in Tipp.

“You see all the clichés about staying away from the hype and locking yourself away, but Liam (Cahill) said, ‘Embrace it all.’

“We’re very lucky that we had All-Ireland winners in our group, lads that had been there before.

“We were having the craic trying on the suit and we were thinking, ‘Should we be enjoying this as much as we are?’ But Noel (McGrath), Ronan (Maher), Jayo (Jason Forde), all these boys, they were enjoying it as well.

“We didn’t put ourselves under too much pressure. We kept to the same routine.

“The world stays spinning. It’s just another game. You don’t get caught up in the hype too much. Now, we’ll tap into the bit of craic and soaking it in and looking at the videos and clips and so on.”

Even the pre-match parade was made fun during the unusually long build-up to throw-in.

“We’d be sneering away,” said Stakelum.

“Willie (Connors) had his few jokes as we walked around in a line. It was calm, it was chill.

“There was such a big crowd at the semi-final that it was like a dry-run for the final, for lads who weren’t there before, to soak in the atmosphere.

“The semi-final was a bit of a shock, but we were kind of used to the ringing noise then, even though it was a huge spectacle.

“But you’re so focused as well. I was nearly like, ‘Will you just throw in the fecking ball?’ You’re waiting for that moment then.”

Having come through a winless 2024 deepened the bond of this Tipp team.

“What went on last year, we went through that together,” Stakelum added.

“It was the same management this year, a couple of tweaks here and there, and that was a really strong foundation, even though we were beaten and beaten really badly.

“We took it in the ear from our supporters, from opposition, from pundits, everything, but we came through that together, and there’s no secret to it. We didn’t do anything madly differently, but we just had that hurt from last year, and that brought us closer.

“We knuckled down and trained hard. We all had each other’s backs because we just knew it was us and nobody else this year. We were written off, and that’s a good place to be in when it’s just the group. Backs to the wall, let’s row in together.”