2026 coming into view
By Shane Brophy
With an All-Ireland title, two Players of the Year and seven All-Stars, the Tipperary senior hurlers are on their well team holiday to South Africa for the next two fortnight as a deserved rewards for the fruits of their labour.
Before the vast majority of the panel departed for Cape Town on Sunday, John McGrath and Darragh McCarthy secured Hurler & Young Hurler of the Year at the PWC GAA/GPA All-Stars at the RDS in Dublin on Friday night. McGrath was one of seven Tipperary players selected to the All-Star team along with captain Ronan Maher, as well as five first-time winners in goalkeeper Rhys Shelly, Robert Doyle and Eoghan Connolly in defence, and Jake Morris and Andrew Ormond in attack.
When the players return from their holiday, the last vestige of championship 2025 will be being presented with their All-Ireland medals before attention turns fully to 2026 and doing something that no Tipperary team has done since 1964-65, retain the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
On top of a fundraiser match for the Dillon Quirke Foundation against Limerick in Fethard on December 13th, Tipperary’s first competitive game of 2026 will come three days into the New Year when they host Waterford in the opening round of the Munster League. Nine days later on Monday, January 12th they will travel to Kerry for their second game and if they progress to the final that will be played on the weekend of January 17th.
While the National League fixtures haven’t been officially released yet, there have been leaks to the draft list submitted to each county with Tipperary set to begin their league campaign in 2026 as they did this year by taking on Galway, in FBD Semple Stadium on the evening of Saturday, January 24th. The following Sunday, February 1st they will take on newly promoted Offaly in Tullamore before six-day later they make a third trip to SuperValu Pairc Ui Chaoimh inside nine months when they take on Cork. Tipperary will host Limerick on weekend of February 21-22 before having their bye round the following weekend. On March 7-8, Tipp will travel to Waterford before wrapping up their group schedule with a home game against Kilkenny on Saturday, March 21st.
Speculation now turns to who will make up the panel for 2026 with six more members of the All-Ireland winning under 20 panel from this year having earned call-ups, including midfielder/half forwards Joe Egan (Moycarkey/Borris), Cathal English (Father Sheehy’s) and Adam Daly (Knockavilla-Donaskeigh Kickhams), as well as Cathal O’Reilly (Holycross/Ballycahill), Adam Ryan (Arravale Rovers), and Stefan Tobin (Carrick Swan) who will also be still eligible for under 20 once again, along with Oisin O’Donoghue. There are also set to be further call-ups but have as yet to be confirmed, as well as those not being retained.