Breen is enjoying his hurling more than ever

By Stephen Barry

Michael Breen reckons that his return to the full-back line has contributed to him enjoying his hurling more than ever.

The 31-year-old Ballina stickman won an All-Ireland minor title in 2012 at full-back alongside Ronan Maher. That pair were reunited in the last line of defence more than a decade later to deliver their third Celtic cross at senior level.

“You play with that bit more abandonment and you understand this isn't going to last forever,” said Breen, who won his previous medals at midfield.

“And a bit of maturity, giving it your everything in terms of what you do off the field and on the field. You do take learnings from what you've done well before and what you've tried to do and hasn't come off for you.

“I'm enjoying it at my most at the minute. I don't know, is that being back in the back line and being similar to where I had started out at minor level?

“I played back in the full-back line with Ronan Maher in 2012. We're back beside one another again now in the most recent game. I really enjoy it. The way the game has gone, you have opportunities to attack also. It's a balance.”

Breen praised Oisín O’Donoghue for making a similar switch to wing-back.

“Oisín has played there with his club. He's a great hurler, he has all the attributes, and he's doing just fine.

“A lot of those guys coming from minor to 20 and then into the senior setup, they're winners already, before they've even struck a ball with the senior team.

“I have been impressed with the lads that have come in. The likes of Cathal O'Reilly really putting his hand up and playing really well throughout the league and not looking one bit out of place.”

Tipp lacked no motivation to right the wrongs of a winless 2024, which fuelled their run to the All-Ireland title. Breen insists their desire remains high to back that up.

“It was asking ourselves, ‘Did we really hold ourselves to the standards that are expected of a Tipperary player?’ We weren't because we didn't get the results and we didn't get out of Munster in 2024.

“Of course, it was easy to be motivated with that. We're still motivated to keep working and to just improve.

“It's a different approach. You're coming in from a different angle, but you can't compare everything to last year. You can't say, ‘Oh, we did this. We have to do this exactly the same way.’

“We just have to look for continued improvement again and go year on year and add to what we were good at last year. We still have to bring forward all those positives and just try to sharpen the sword a small bit more.

“One of the hardest things to do is back up an All-Ireland title. There's so much quality in this championship. You look at Munster alone. We haven't won a Munster Championship since 2016, so number one, let's try to get out of Munster, get a win in the first round, and go from there.”

The work will continue over the coming weeks before meeting Cork in their championship opener.

“We're still looking to get a lot of work done,” said Breen. “We've another three or four weeks to bank work and prepare for Cork on the 19th.

“We've had some great battles with them and they've probably got the rub of the green more than we have on a couple of those occasions in the last year or so.

“It'll be a different physical battle, tactical battle. There's always going to be things that are tried and whether they come off or not, we'll see. But once we get our set of things in order, we'll be happy enough.”