Practise makes perfect for McCarthy

By Shane Brophy

Throughout his 10 out of 10 placed-ball performance, Darragh McCarthy wasn’t thinking of Hill 16 or the Cork fans booing him.

Instead, he was picturing the back field in Toomevara and all the frees he’s popped between those posts over the years. McCarthy’s elaborate free-taking routine was inherited from his brother, Kevin, and it has stood Darragh in good stead over the years.

“My brother started it, so I copied him when I was a young lad, and that's where it started,” he revealed.

“You embrace it (the pressure). My father would always say, if you're going into a big crowd or whatever, just take a few deep breaths and take it all in before anything starts.

That's what I've done, and you just forget about it all then.

“You're just in the back field in Toome again. You're visualising all the practice you've done there in Toome. Like Liam was saying there before the game, the goalposts don't move. They're the same. Four lines, two goalposts in a field, and it's the same thing really.”

The faith that manager Liam Cahill has invested in him means a huge amount to the Toome teenager. Right from the outset of the league, he was picked to start every game he was available for and handed the free-taking duties.

A couple of misses in the All-Ireland semi-final led to some external chat about whether McCarthy or Jason Forde should take the frees. Did he feel any extra pressure since that game?

“A small bit maybe, but there's a lot worse things going on in the world than hitting frees in Croke Park,” he added.

“Liam backed me all day after the Kilkenny game. He said, ‘You’re going to stay on frees.’ That gives you some confidence coming from the man at the top of it all, giving you that gee-up to say you're the man to take the frees. It gives you great confidence.

“It means so much. When he's backing you, you need no one else backing you, really. But when you had the forty lads on the panel backing you as well, it gives you so much confidence to go and do what you do in practice every day and go execute there on the big day.”

For the second-half penalty, there was some discussion between Forde and McCarthy over who should take the shot.

“Jason wanted to hit it as well, but I said I'd take it off him. Jason was getting ratty about it!” said McCarthy with a chuckle.

“I said, ‘No, leave it off.’ But Jason said, ‘Go for it.’ That gave me confidence to do what I do and stick it.

“You have to do a bit of positive talking to yourself. You have to steel the mind in a way. Three points up, score this and go six up, with a man up as well. There was pressure on that.”

That goal made McCarthy the first Tipp teenager to raise a green flag in an All-Ireland final since his “favourite hurler of all time”, Noel McGrath. Before that, it was Liam Cahill in 1997 against Clare.

The Premier wonderkid’s final role also featured plenty of running to occupy the spare Cork defender.

“There was chopping and changing in the match. It was all just rotation. The lads love rotation in the forwards, and that was really it,” he said.

After his Munster Championship red card against Cork, McCarthy reckons he was contacted by the entire Tipp panel with messages of support. Jake Morris texted him the next morning to go for a coffee and lift the spirits.

“Everything fell into place nicely, but every individual on the team had their own battles along the way, on and off the field.

“Everyone dealt with them in the right way, and thankfully we're here today.

“It's a pure privilege. We believed in ourselves the whole year, and it paid off. I think we really deserved that. All credit to the lads. We were in some shape on Sunday.”