2025 lives along side 1949

KILLINAN END

Whenever Tipperary hurling is discussed the events of 2025 will hold a special place. Buried for all time was the spurious notion that Tipperary cannot come out of the pack unexpectedly to win an All-Ireland Senior hurling title. As argued previously in this column the All-Ireland titles of 1930, ‘37, ’45, & ’49, were all won from positions of disadvantage in recent years. In 1930, Tipp had not been in a provincial final for four years. In ’37, Tipp had to take down a Limerick team that had beaten them by an average of twelve points in the two previous Munster finals.

The 1945 win came at the time of an earlier iteration of the drive for five, this time by Cork’s hurlers, with the Limerick team that had taken them right to the wire in the previous year's Munster Final their most obvious rivals. Both were beaten by Tipp. Not too many had foreseen the September day when Ronan Maher’s granduncle lifted Liam MacCarthy after beating Kilkenny either. Perhaps these days have suffered through the passage of time and diminution of folk memory. The town-criers of Cork’s 1966 triumph choose silence. No mushrooms in Tipp it seems but these titles were unheralded and presumably all the sweeter for that.

On the question of overall quality 1958’s success is one of the more low-key, but it sure ticks some boxes; Limerick – Munster champions three years earlier; Cork taken down in the Munster semi-final after some agonising defeats in earlier years; Waterford – reigning Munster champions and on the eve of their second All-Ireland success beaten by sixteen points in the Munster Final; and then the defending All-Ireland champions Kilkenny beaten in the semi-final. Maybe the low-profile Galway team in the final causes this one to suffer in historical assessment, but if a full house is your thing that was quite a year.

To some extent the 1949 success loses altitude too because the final was a runaway against Laois in that county's last Senior hurling final. However, a memorable Munster campaign saw Cork beaten in a couple of era-defining matches. Limerick were overcome in the Munster final after three previous defeats. It is further buoyed in history’s waters by what came after Pat Stakelum raised the McCarthy Cup. Perhaps Tipp’s most consequential All-Ireland title.

The successes of 2010 and 2019 saw the team absorbing crushing blows against Cork and Limerick respectively. The former, of course, has a special place with Kilkenny’s mighty team beaten comprehensively on a day throbbing with historical significance. The latter featured an extraordinary last twenty minutes against Wexford which ranks, for both hurling and character, with anything that was ever clad in Blue & Gold.

The campaign of 2025 will stand easily beside anything that has gone before. A very good performance against Limerick in Thurles augured well with John McGrath’s form an eye-catching straw in the wind. Defeat in Cork was comprehensive but underneath the surface a doggedness and resilience in adversity foreshadowed better days. This bore fruit in Ennis, an old-school venue with baying hordes and boiling blood. It was of course not the first display of character from Tipp this year.

In an early interview, perhaps after Limerick game, Jake Morris spoke and it was clear, whatever the year was going to bring, these players had taken ownership of the situation. Much had been made about Tipp’s supporters ‘deserting’ the team when things were going badly. While you’ll always get the supporter who glories in following the team through thick and thin, the problem with a team like Tipperary is that, for all our fondness of the county jersey and all that it stands for, it is defined by success. The county’s hurling tradition, like that of Kerry football, or New Zealand rugby, is based on performing and winning. Support is inevitably transactional.

Then consider the small individual moments that won an All-Ireland. Jason Forde’s immaculate free-taking and point from under the Cusack Stand against Kilkenny. Imagine the luxury of being able to turn to a man like that in a crisis? That’s before even thinking of his velvet touch for the goal. And what of Alan Tynan’s pick-pocket moment against Kilkenny? Without that we’d have a winter of some discontent.

Then Robert Doyle’s persuasive Pat McLoughney impression the same day. Ronan Maher’s magnetic catches in the final as he entered the echelons of iconic Tipperary hurlers. Truly a man apart from a club without equal for All-Ireland winning captains. We’ll remember Darragh McCarthy’s iced veins from the penalty spot. ‘Toomevara against Ballinhassig’ said the commentator………………..really?! That could only have ended one way.

Jake Morris, the goal-scorer supreme, finished the championship goalless but was never more influential, not least when he turned, arms swinging, after scoring against Kilkenny and seemed to inject energy for that final surge of belief to get a 14-man Tipp over the line. Gritty defenders from Kilruane and Holycross? We’ve seen that somewhere before. And a special Patrick Horgan-shaped back-pocket being produced for Mikey Breen by the Lakeside? Ballina against Glen Rovers…………………really?! Never in doubt. Whatever the merits of Tipp’s overall campaign and they are myriad indeed, it is doubtful we will ever enjoy a second half quite like the 2025 All-Ireland Final. We will ‘Christmas’ like it’s 1949.

• This column will take a break until hurling hostilities resume in the new year. Nollaig shona daoibh go léir.