An Under 21 success built on core values

If symmetry is your thing it was pleasing that Tipperary became the last winners of the Under-21 hurling championship. Some 54 years a team including Len Gaynor, Francis Loughnane, Mick Roche, Babs Keating, Newport’s Noel O’Gorman and Lorrha’s Noel Lane – quite a star-studded bunch – became the first winners of the competition beating Wexford in the final.

Despite a heavy defeat that day this became somewhat of a golden era for Wexford under-age hurling. Between 1963 and ’68 Wexford won three All-Ireland minor titles and an Under-21 which was won in 1965 at the expense of Tipp. From 1963 to 1973 inclusive the Model County won five Leinster minor hurling titles and seven Under-21. The conversion rate to national titles was not great though with very strong Cork teams the usual stumbling block. Wexford’s senior return after the 1968 All-Ireland win which amounted to just two Leinster titles in 1976/77 and alerts us to any assumptions regarding guarantees provided by under-age success.

It was remarked by Seán Moran in the Irish Times at the weekend that Tipp were unlucky in that their minor winning team of 2016 would not get a shot at the Under-21 championship when, presumably, their chances of winning would be at their optimum. Not unreasonable conventional wisdom on the face it but of course the direct link between minor and Under-21 success has always been more notional than real.

 

To read more, pick up a copy of this weeks Nenagh Guardian locally or subscribe to our e-paper to access it online each Wednesday.