Huw Lawlor’s debut season for Kilkenny ended in a haze of blue and gold, with strains of Slievenamon bouncing around the stadium and Tipperary leaving Croke Park with the spoils of the season.
Tipp were commanding winners of that 2019 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship final, 3-25 to 0-20.
In Lawlor’s maiden campaign with the Kilkenny seniors, his performances were enough to earn him an All Star nomination. But the All-Ireland decider proved a challenging afternoon for all wearing black and amber, as Séamus Callanan captained Tipp to a 14-point victory in a game shaped by Richie Hogan’s sending off before the interval.
It remains the last time the counties have met in the championship – but that will change at Croke Park this Sunday when they cross hurls at the semi-final stages (4pm throw-in).
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Between 2009 and 2019, the sides contested six All-Ireland SHC finals, one of which went to a replay. Yet Sunday will actually be Tipp’s first time playing at GAA headquarters since the 2019 decider. Lawlor didn’t win an All Star that season but the 29-year-old has since picked up two accolades and is now widely regarded as one of the top full backs in the game.
“Obviously it was a tough first year; when you go in as a defender in your first year, you’re going to be challenged in different ways,” he recalls. “But I took huge learnings from that match and every championship match that year. Obviously there’s huge history there [between the counties] and there’s obviously been massive local excitement.”
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Asked about the lack of championship meetings between the counties since 2019, he says: “It’s funny the way it works out. They were huge battles in the late 2000s between the counties as two great teams went at it. Those Kilkenny players are heroes of ours so we’re just trying to replicate that.”
Kilkenny have not won an All-Ireland senior hurling title since 2015 and are currently enduring their joint longest spell without an All-Ireland triumph along with the barren decades between 1922-32 and 1947-57.
The Cats lost to Clare at the semi-final stage 12 months ago – with the Banner progressing to beat Cork in the decider. Having contested the 2022 and 2023 finals, Kilkenny have lost to the eventual champions in the last three years.
“Obviously it was hugely disappointing to lose that game last year,” says Lawlor. “We probably put ourselves in a good position and we didn’t finish it off.
“But every time you lose it’s feeding something inside that drives you on. Losing would probably drive you on a lot more than winning and we’re just trying to put that right.”
Lawlor was at home two weeks ago watching the Dublin-Limerick quarter-final. Had that game gone to form, then the Cats would have been playing John Kiely’s side in a semi-final this weekend.
But Lawlor says he was not shocked to see the Dubs deliver such a performance.
“I’m not surprised they did well. Obviously we’ve played them a number of times over the years, they have some brilliant hurlers so I’m not surprised by the performance and huge credit to them, they really brought it on the day.
“A lot of people might have expected Limerick to win but as I said, we were just focusing on ourselves, we were ready to play whoever came down the track for us.
“That result probably emphasised that there’s such fine margins in intercounty hurling. If you’re not right or you don’t perform in the right way on a certain day, anything can happen.”
Kilkenny’s Leinster final win over Galway last month secured a sixth consecutive Bob O’Keeffe Cup for the Cats, but landing hurling’s biggest prize is the main aim of Derek Lyng’s side.
Lawlor has been working as a dietitian at St Luke’s Hospital in Kilkenny for the last four years but he doesn’t take his work with him to the dressingroom.
“No, not at all, we have dietitians and they’re brilliant. If there are any questions from the lads, I just tell them they’re asking the wrong person. There’s clinical dietetics and then there’s sports nutrition, which is a different kind of a thing.
“But nutrition is a big part of the game now and you’re just trying to nail it and not leave yourself short on game day.
“You could say that about your training and your sleep and your nutrition; if you leave one short you’re going to suffer down the line.”
Former Kilkenny defender Tommy Walsh has famously talked in the past about his in-season diet, which often included a fry in the morning and a plate of chicken goujons after training.
“I wouldn’t be going against Tommy Walsh on it, that’s for sure,” smiles Lawlor. “It didn’t do him any harm.”
And it’s no harm for hurling to have Kilkenny and Tipperary back biting at each other in Croke Park either.
*Lawlor was speaking at the launch of the 24th annual Circet All-Ireland GAA Golf Challenge. This year’s Challenge, in aid of GAA-related charities, takes place at Killarney Golf and Fishing Resort on October 16th and 17th.
