It was one of those heady days, swirling with emotion and ending with Liam Cahill praising Tipperary’s fearless young new heroes, hailing their unconquerable older ones and remembering a player no longer inside that dressingroom.
It was a day when the likes of Darragh McCarthy, Sam O’Farrell, Eoghan Connolly, Rhys Shelly and Andrew Ormond earned their maiden Liam MacCarthy stripes. A day when a fourth was added to the considerably broad shoulders of Noel McGrath, a third for Ronan Maher, Michael Breen, Jason Forde and John McGrath. A day of days for Tipp.
But it was also a poignant day for the Quirke family. Dillon, who was a member of the Tipperary panel, passed away during a club game at Semple Stadium in August 2022. He was just 24. As the team bus made its way to Croke Park on Sunday, Cahill received a good luck message from Dillon’s dad, Dan.
“I just said (back) that Dillon will be on all our shoulders today regardless what happens in the result,” said Cahill, who for the entirety of Sunday’s game wore a bib branded with the Dillon Quirke Foundation logo. “Dillon is with us every day. When we started out on this journey in 2023 we were all hit with that devastating tragedy of what happened to Dillon. I was 50 yards from it the day it happened in Semple Stadium and I’ll never forget it.
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“It had a huge effect on our dressingroom. He should be with us today, but the legacy he’s leaving and the work that he’s doing to save lives across Ireland at the moment through his name and the foundation is just incredible. And today, I never flinched at any stage on the line once he was across my chest, I knew that we would be battling right to the end. I’m just so proud to have had an input into his life for the for the short number of years he was with us.”
This was Tipperary’s first All-Ireland senior hurling final appearance since 2019. For a county with such tradition that absence felt like an eternity, and they entered the contest as rank outsiders in a two-horse race. Odds not lost on Cahill.
“To be fair to Cork, I can only imagine what it has been like for Pat (Ryan) and his management team trying to manage that expectation,” added Cahill. “It’s huge. Cork have been superb all year, league champions, Munster champions, bringing massive crowds back. As I said to Pat after, I wish it was anybody bar him that I was shaking hands with today, because he’s put so much into it.
“He’s after having a difficult year as well, personally. But I know that Cork team will be back and I know that Cork will have their day in the sun soon.”
But few teams have ever delivered such a blinding second-half display in an All-Ireland final as Tipp managed on Sunday. They outscored Cork 3-14 to 0-2 in the second period to overcome a six-point interval deficit. If Cork crumbled then it was only because Tipp brought the wrecking ball to the arena.
“The (Cork) goal before half-time was a fair sucker punch,” said Cahill. “In that dressingroom at half-time you could see the desire in their eyes to say that scoreboard should be a little bit closer. We started the second half like a rocket.
“Fortune favours the brave and our hurlers were really brave today.”
Cahill was brave, or cute, depending on your perspective, too in deploying Bryan O’Mara as a sweeping extra defender. At Tipp’s pre-All-Ireland final media event, Cahill stressed that he never played a sweeper. A good old-fashioned ruse had been planted.
“I suppose the dog on the street knew that you just can’t leave channels for this Cork team to run through,” smiled Cahill. “Look, I’m a traditionalist, I like to play 15 on 15 if I can at all, but we had to cut our cloth to measure today to make sure that we gave ourselves a chance to express ourselves as well.
“Look, I suppose you have to move with the times, and when you get to a final you have to try win it.”
Jason Forde collected his third All-Ireland medal on Sunday. The manner of Tipp’s 2024 campaign might have prompted the Silvermines clubman towards retirement but instead it steeled his resolve about returning.
“We were so hurt after last year,” he said, referencing their failure to get out of Munster. “Tipp is obviously such a mad hurling county and a lot of us are living close to the big towns and stuff, and that’s where you’re going around and you’re meeting people. You’re nearly ashamed going around to show your face because the manner in which we went out.
“And we said as a group all year, there’s nobody going to come and save us, we had to go back and put in the work and drag ourselves out of it and thank God we did. When I met Liam (at the end of last year), I just said we couldn’t leave things like that. Having played for Tipp for 13 seasons and winning All-Irelands and things like that, to leave it on that note it just wouldn’t have felt right.”
Cahill has now achieved something truly unprecedented having managed Tipperary to All-Ireland minor, under-20, under-21 and senior titles.
At the end of last year’s campaign, Cahill was asked by Shane Brophy of the Nenagh Guardian if he was the right man to take the team forward. Cahill hadn’t taken kindly to the question at the time but subsequently accepted it was a fair query given their results.
Before he exited the press conference room on Sunday evening, Cahill made a point of thanking the media before smiling towards Brophy.
“Shane, it’s good to be back on good terms.”
Tipp, back on top of the hurling mountain.
