Tipperary peaked at just the right time to reach hurling's summit

Having been beaten flat on the anvil in the course of a demoralising campaign in 2024, Tipperary’s hurlers regained their shape to such an extent this year that they ended the season as All-Ireland champions, having beaten all comers en route to winning the MacCarthy Cup for the 29th time in the county’s history.

The sixth match in a row that they won to return to the summit for the first time in six years was achieved courtesy of a 21-point turnaround in Sunday’s All-Ireland final against Cork, a game they won by 15 points having been behind by six at half-time.

Clearly, Liam Cahill and his management team had the side primed to peak at just the right time in the sixth all-Munster All-Ireland final. The convincing victory in the decider was all the more praiseworthy, following heavy defeats by the same opponents in the national league final and Munster championship.

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As the satisfaction with Sunday’s success continues to sink in among Tipperary people everywhere, it’s worth reflecting on the transformation in the county’s fortunes in the space of just over twelve months, one that has been nothing short of remarkable.

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In the 2024 Munster championship campaign, Tipperary finished at the foot of the table with just a single point from their four games following defeats by Limerick, Cork and Clare and a draw with Waterford. It’s no exaggeration to suggest that the county’s fortunes were at rock bottom.

So what has brought around the turnaround in such a short space of time?

Coach Michael Bevans said on The Sunday Game, “People were asking about what was different this year”.

“I think the effort the players made to get more connected to each other, to help each other out; we got that sense the very day we went back training, that there was something different about them. They made a huge effort to bond with each other a lot better”.

The seamless integration of younger players who have shown maturity beyond their age, such as Darragh McCarthy, Robert Doyle, Sam O’Farrell and Oisín O’Donoghue, into the set-up has been pivotal to the resurrection of their fortunes.

So too has the rate of improvement of so many others in the panel. Jake Morris has stepped up as a scorer and creator-in-chief and is now being talked about as a strong contender for the Hurler of the Year award. John McGrath has been a player reborn this season. His haul of 2-2 last Sunday, the goals executed with clinical efficiency, means that he finished the championship as the joint highest scorer from play, his 7-16 only matched by Dublin’s Cian O’Sullivan’s 5-22.

Noel McGrath has been playing better than ever in his cameo appearances while captain Ronan Maher, RTÉ’s man of the match in the final, has anchored a watertight defence that put the shackles on Cork’s highly-rated attack.

In goalkeeper Rhys Shelly, the team has a commanding presence between the posts.

As thoughts turn to next year, Tipperary will have to go where the previous seven All-Ireland winners from the county have failed to go if they want to retain the MacCarthy Cup. The last Tipp team to do so was in 1965.

What next for Cork, of whom so much was expected on Sunday, after they had won the Munster championship and national league?

Their dejected manager Pat Ryan stated on Sunday, “Our momentum and our energy was terrible in the second half. They had all the momentum, they had all the energy, they were the crowd that were working the hardest. That’s the disappointing thing from our point of view.

“Obviously, it’s the second All-Ireland in a row that we’ve lost. Just really, really disappointed with that second half. We didn’t represent ourselves the way we should have represented ourselves.

“Credit to Tipperary. They came up and you could see that they had loads of momentum behind them and they had a lot of good players all over the place”.

At half-time in Sunday’s final Cork were 2/13 to finish the job in the second half and win the county’s first All-Ireland title in 20 years.

The Rebels, who were 2/5 favourites to beat Tipperary in Sunday’s decider, have already been installed as the 9/4 favourites to end their famine and win the MacCarthy Cup next year, with Limerick 5/2 and the new All-Ireland champions Tipperary the third favourites at 9/2.

They are followed in the betting by Kilkenny at 11/2, Clare and Galway at 8/1, and Dublin and Waterford at 25/1.