Michael Ryan’s stamp delivers title for Tipperary tigers

Tipperary 2-29 Kilkenny 2-20: Just how “bloody arrogant” can you get? On the Irish Examiner podcast this past week, former Offaly hurler Daithí Regan mentioned how Tipperary aren’t lacking in the confidence department. After being under Kilkenny’s thumb these last five seasons, they had been given every reason to keep their optimism in check but then they produce a meteoric performance like this and combust any sense of inferiority. Indian sign? What Indian sign?

The sight of Michael Ryan smiling and laughing on Croke Park’s big screens as Richie Hogan desperately flung his hurley to stop an errant TJ Reid pass in the final minute of action seemed to peeve those Kilkenny supporters who remained on for additional time even though the game was more than up on their team’s three-in-a-row hopes.

Fuel for the 2017 fire, perhaps, but it’s Tipperary’s inferno that now burns the brightest.