The Greatest of them all

IN ALL FAIRNESS

July 20th 2025 will be a date Tipperary hurling supporters will have etched in their memories for the rest of their lives. The most recent of the now 29 All-Ireland titles will generally feel the best but Sunday’s victory eclipses 2010 as greatest of them all.

2010 wasn’t about just stopping Kilkenny’s drive-for-5, that was a bonus; it was about redemption from the year before when Tipperary failed to get the job done against Kilkenny. That their goalkeeper PJ Ryan was man of the match says it all about the opportunities Tipp had to put them away, long before referee Diarmuid Kirwan awarded the penalty that wasn’t, which turned the game.

Tipp had a team then on the cusp of something, building over the preceding two years under Liam Sheedy; at the start of this year, we didn’t know what we had. That’s the remarkable aspect to this success, it’s come out of nowhere effectively. Not just written off outside the county, within the border itself the belief levels were as low as they have ever been coming into a campaign, and for the players and management to right the ship in such a short space of time is what makes this success almost unique and why it can be claimed as Tipp’s greatest All-Ireland triumph.

It is the end of a journey that began last October at the conclusion of the club championship when Liam Cahill pulled his panel together for the first time, picking up the pieces from the wreck of a few months earlier. His decision to drop All-Star defender Cathal Barrett was a statement that he was going to do it his way. It might have been his third year but as he stated earlier this year that he was walking on egg shells a little, he wasn’t holding back anymore and would mould a team he wanted.

Through the league it built brick by brick, getting to a league final which proved to be a set-back, but every good thing that is ultimately made has a flaw that is highlighted along the way that needs to be corrected.

The crucial juncture came on a balmy May evening in Ennis when Tipp went to the home of the All-Ireland champions Clare, and not only out-hurled them in the opening half with four stunning goals and a few more left behind, but they also showed resolve in withstanding a Clare comeback in the second half, to claim the win that instilled a belief that has carried them all the way to become All-Ireland champions.

That victory was also the one that got the supporters back on board fully. The following week, almost 30,000 turned up in Thurles for the winner-takes-all game with Waterford. The Laois game was pretty much a foregone conclusion but the sheer volume of the blue and gold army that made the trip to Portlaoise suggested that they liked what they were seeing, not just in that they were winning, but how they were doing it.

The Galway game was a strange one, a poor spectacle, arguably Tipp’s poorest performance in the championship, largely the only match they played with a pressure on their shoulders, but their class was enough to pull them through.

Such was the manner of Sunday’s victory, in posterity the semi-final win over Kilkenny will be seen as the game the All-Ireland was won, particularly coming from behind with fourteen men against the old enemy, with a combination of defiance and fearlessness, epitomised by Oisin O’Donoghue’s winning goal.

Sunday’s All-Ireland Final felt like a coming together of a lot of areas that had forged as strong a bond as there has ever been in the county, both on and off the field. I made it my business to get up to Dublin early and go Talbot Street to attend the Sean Treacy Commemoration for the first time. To say it is special would be an understatement, thousands and thousands of people felt drawn to a spot over looking what is now a small bakery shop to remember a fallen comrade, killed 106 years ago. It’s symbolism was powerful!

Then walking through the streets on the way to Croke Park, there were Tipperary fans everywhere, suggesting we weren’t going to be lacking support in the stadium, provided they all had tickets. Red is such an illuminating colour it can make it look more dominant, and while Cork might have shaded the supporter numbers in the stadium, when the Tipperary team ran out onto the field second, the roar that greeted them was louder than for Cork two minutes earlier.

The only sense of trepidation was over whether Cork would get to play the game on their terms as they did twice in Pairc Ui Chaoimh and from an early stage it was clear that wouldn’t be the case. The 1-16 to 0-13 scoreline in their favour at half time was false, Tipp were closer than that on the eye-test. Actually, the goal right on half time was the worst thing that happened to them. It softened them for the break whereas it hardened Tipperary, and what we got in the second half was one of the great All-Ireland final performances.

There were so many moments to reflect on: penny for John Sheehy’s thoughts this week in Portroe seeing Patrick Collins pull the ball down over his crossbar only this time it wasn’t Seanie O’Leary but John McGrath pilfering the goal.

McGrath’s involvement for the penalty was his own Seamus Darby moment with a little nudge on Eoin Downey as the ball as coming in that referee Liam Gordon couldn’t have seen, before drawing the foul, penalty, and red card.

My first sense at that stage was, would this inspire 14-man Cork to find a new level as Dublin and Tipp found in similar circumstances in recent weeks. Before that, the penalty had to be converted. Jason Forde is the sweetest striker of the ball on the panel, and has the experience, but Darragh McCarthy was up to the task, with a technique that any penalty-takers in the country should follow.

Then the coup de gras, McCarthy providing the pass to Noel McGrath, the spiritual leader of this team who was first to the Darragh after his sending off against Cork in Munster, for him to point with the final play of the match, confirming a fourth All-Ireland senior medal for the Loughmore/Castleiney great.

Much of the last twenty minutes are a blur, not euphoric by any means, more stunned at what had just happened and been achieved, particularly from the relatively fresh embers the team had sparked from, not just from last year, but the pain of a fallen team-mate not with them, but he was in spirit and will always be, Dillon Quirke.

Tipperary are never gone, but they are back!