Tynan stands tall in Roscrea survival

By Shane Brophy

Alan Tynan has played in a lot of pressure games from All-Ireland Minor Finals in both hurling and football, a Leinster Schools Rugby Cup Final, and an All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final but he admitted Sunday’s senior hurling relegation final was as pressurised as they come as Roscrea secured their top tier status for another year at least.

“It’s not the pressure you want as a player,” admitted the man of the match.

“There is a lot of pressure on it coming from Roscrea and the tradition of the club over many years. We feel we are a senior club and a great hurling town so we didn’t want to go down and our battling qualities came through at the end so thankfully we stayed up.”

Roscrea had played a lot of good hurling throughout the campaign but still found themselves over the relegation trapdoor and Tynan feels this mentality had an impact in the relegation semi-final.

“I was sick of hearing all year that we were the unluckiest team in the county,” he admitted.

“Going into the Upperchurch game you are hearing that a lot and it kind of seeps into your psyche a small bit and we got a small bit soft in ourselves and our preparation for the Upperchurch match and our performance showed.

“We had a meeting on the Monday and we just said we are going to give this a lash, no matter the result and we bounced into training on the Tuesday night, and thankfully got the result.”

Tynan is nothing if brutally honest and admitted he hadn’t impacted Sunday’s game until just before half time when he set up Kenny’s Lee’s goal before going onto score 1-3 from play in the second half.

“I got moved out of midfield as I was absolutely brutal so I don’t think it was a tactical switch on Evan’s (Fitzpatrick) part, it was more trying to get me into the match,” Tynan added.

“Kenny’s goal before half time was huge and Leigh Loughnane stood up well as did Aaron O’Donoghue in the half-backline and Darragh (Tynan) got three super points, a real captains performance.

“Everyone stood up which was great to see. The likes of Aaron, it is good to see a young lad to come through and that is not easy for a young lad to have your first start in a relegation campaign against Mullinahone. We know how tough they are. We played them two years ago and they basically bullied us so we knew what we were facing into and thankfully we were up for the fight today.”

While it wasn’t the final Roscrea would have wanted to play in to conclude their campaign, it is a winning one which they will hope will inspire them going into 2027.

“There is a lot of build on this year for Roscrea,” Tynan added.

“We lost to Drom by a point, were very competitive against Cashel and in the North. We probably let ourselves down in the first half against Kiladangan and were fighting an uphill battle after that.

“We had one massive blip against Upperchurch, and I’m not saying a blip in a disrespectful way to Upperchurch, they were by far the better team on the day, but we didn’t get anywhere near the performance we expect of ourselves and thankfully we got them today in a really nervy game.

“Since I am hurling senior for Roscrea, as a group our character has always been questioned.

“We were relegated once (2021) and bounced straight back but I know the character of those lads in the dressing room, they are genuinely my best friends and guys you’d go to war with. We will always back each other up.

“It was a real character building year and hopefully it stands to us going forward.”

For the moment, the 29-year-old is looking forward to a short break in advance of hopefully linking up with Tipperary for 2027.

“I know more than anyone how you have to hit the inter-county season running, well hopefully if I am brought back in, but I am someone who cannot be taking too much of a rest as the fitness levels need to always be there.

“We’ll need some sort of a break and look forward to getting back in with the lads,” he concluded.