Rediscovering refusing to lose mentality
IN ALL FAIRNESS
Before the League Final, it was suggested in this column that Limerick might bring fire and brimstone to the decider before subsequently struggling to emerge from Munster. That prediction aged well. At least the logic was simple: Limerick’s age profile did not suggest a team still capable of repeatedly going to extreme places as required even during their full bloom. But those concerns have withered away. Limerick’s younger players have excelled and perhaps they have benefited from a less taxing Munster Championship run.
Clare were not at the peak of their recent powers while Waterford suffered badly with injuries. A Tipperary team in the circumstances was always likely to labour heavily, though the picture of Jake Morris posing for a photo with a little Limerick supporter did remind us that class is permanent. All of this has suited Limerick’s run, but they are clearly operating at a higher level than last year. Their tendency to drift out of games remains a concern, but otherwise they appear in rude health.
Clare are perhaps the most puzzling of the three teams emerging from Munster. Their capacity to reach the heights of recent years again this summer is one of the great unknowns. We will discount the match in Páirc Uí Chaoimh as a reliable indicator. At full throttle, the Banner would certainly relish a quarter-final against either Dublin or Galway.
Dublin too could be considered i mbarr na sláinte, but this may be more of a bubble than people imagine. On the face of it, their campaign has been extraordinary: wins in Wexford Park and Salthill and finally getting over the line against Kilkenny. But can the value of victory in the Model County now be reconsidered? And what of the draw in Tullamore? Despite Offaly’s merits, that outcome showed that Dublin can still come up short. Question marks hover over Galway too. Beaten by Dublin at home and falling behind against Wexford does not bode well. Not tricks to rely on against Cork or Limerick, or even Clare if they do have plenty more in the tank.
The early exit of the All-Ireland champions might, in theory, be the story of the championship, but emerging from the province was never expected to be anything other than a chore. Surely the title of the competition’s greatest success so far belongs to Offaly. Leaving qualification aside, five games with only one defeat is quite a record for a team that won just one game last year. That said, they impressed in fits and starts last year too, running Wexford and Dublin close in their Leinster games. Crucially, this shows progress and, while they face a formidable quarter-final challenge against Limerick or Cork, they may take solace in Dublin’s experience with Limerick last year. You would not count on a recurrence of that, but Offaly’s year has already been a success regardless.
Getting back to Tipp, it was refreshing to hear Liam Cahill’s interview after the match in Limerick. Cute hoorism was not on the agenda, just a genuine hurling man shooting the breeze. The sentiments are ones we might usefully reflect upon. As suggested here previously, history may look kindly on the 2025 All-Ireland triumph not merely as one ‘against the head’, but as one carefully crafted and moulded by the management team. When you stand back and consider it, Liam Cahill’s overall record is extraordinary. His host of under-age successes in Tipp, allied to his exploits with Waterford, attests to the value of his partnership with Michael Bevans.
In private conversation last year, on the day after the All-Ireland Final, Cahill replied to praise for what he had done for the county with the observation that “it means so much to us”; an ego-less acknowledgement of himself as merely part of the DNA of a long and storied tradition. Throw in his energy, youth, and presumably unrivalled knowledge of the bubbling-under talent in the county, and Tipp are lucky to have such a manager.
His observations about the challenge facing a young player against a team of Limerick’s quality should certainly provide food for thought. There was one definite moment of self-reflection: the preparation for the Cork game. One sensed faint traces of regret here. You could imagine a Ger Loughnane or Brian Cody team frothing at the mouth months in advance of this All-Ireland repeat on home turf.
After the 2016 Munster Final, Henry Shefflin admitted in RTÉ’s studio that the strains of Slievenamon around the Gaelic Grounds “send shivers up my spine” before lamenting Waterford’s inability to bring “hatred” to the occasion. It is difficult to imagine any former Tipperary hurler speaking so naturally in those terms, where paranoia and race-memory drive the agenda and provide internal motivation.
Yet we recall Noel Sheehy taking exception to Liam Fennelly in 1991 simply to lay down a marker. And Len Gaynor in 1967 breaking a hurley across a Kilkenny player before continuing to pull with what timber remained. Not a day for parlour hurlers. Remember the savagery of Clare against Cork in 1998? The sheer defiance of Loughnane behind the net in 1997 when Kilkenny’s boy wonder lined up a penalty that was ultimately saved. That pure “bull thickness”, as Darragh Ó Sé has called it, where defeat is simply not acceptable, is a mentality we might usefully rediscover ahead of key matches such as that Cork championship opener. For all the science and know-how, it still has a decisive role to play.