COLUMN: Another Tipp legend hangs up his boots

We’re lucky in Tipperary to have produced some of the greatest hurlers to have every graced the game, and this week we had to say goodbye to yet another who spoiled us with some of the most brilliant skill ever seen in the modern game.

Still at the age of just 31 and with only 37 championship appearances, the selfish part of us will wonder could we have seen more of the precocious Killenaule man John “Bubbles” O’Dwyer had injuries and Covid disruption not gotten in the way but the decade or so we were treated to will live long in the memory for every Tipperary supporter.

He made his first appearance in the blue and gold as a minor in 2008 before moving on to win Munster and All-Ireland honours with the U21s in 2010, but for me personally, his arrival on the scene really came in the 2012 Munster final defeat against Clare in Cusack Park, in a match where he excelled and nearly dragged his team to the title.

He scored 1-7 that day and I remember looking on in awe of the ball striking ability he had, and wondered to myself how he wasn’t already on the senior panel.

It wouldn’t be long for others to take notice of course, with Eamon O’Shea pulling him into the senior set up in 2013 and while it was a disappointing year for the seniors, Bubbles had a very good debut year, first scoring 1-3 as a half-time substitute against Limerick in the Munster semi-final, before playing well in the infamous qualifier loss to Kilkenny in Nowlan Park in July, scoring 0-3 in the game and showing the public a small snippet of the talent he had and what was to come.

Year two of the Eamon O’Shea tenure brought out the best of O’Dwyer, and indeed, the entire forward division which was earmarked by movement, ability to score, and racking up big scores as Bubbles was at the heart of a run to the All-Ireland final.

He scored 0-7 in the drawn final but the image of him striking that long range free from nearly 100 metres out in the dying stages of the match, with only the intervention of the newly-acquired Hawkeye technology denying Tipperary a famous win.

The replay didn’t go to plan and despite the loss to the Cats, he picked up his first and only All-Star award which was more than deserved. Titles and medals would eventually come for Bubbles in the following years, after Tipp clinched the Munster title in 2015.

The following year was an up-and-down year for Bubbles, as he had a mixed season up until the 2016 All-Ireland semi-final when he turned the game for Michael Ryan’s charges, scoring a ridiculous goal in the second half and it was the epitome of the freestyle hurling and wrists the Killenaule man possessed, improvising from an impossible angle to bat the ball past Colm Callanan.

He went on to star in the final that year with his 48th minute goal opening up a four point gap against Kilkenny as he would eventually finish the game with a total of 1-5 in a comprehensive win for the Premier.

The 2019 season would be Bubbles’ last proper full season in the Tipperary jersey and it culminated in another top display from the Killenaule man on the biggest stage yet again, scoring 1-2 from play in a terrific team performance. From there, injuries would largely curtail any major involvement O’Dwyer would have and after a stop-start 2020, he had his final impression in the 2021 Munster final against Limerick, scoring a terrific goal in the first half.

Lauded by many for being one of the “wristiest” hurlers in the country, I always think of Cyril Farrell’s description of him when he said that Bubbles could “make the ball talk” and the fact that he can safely be compared to some of the great Tipperary forwards of any era is the biggest compliment of the quality he had in his time in blue and gold.