Stroke of genius
Now I realise that Tipperary winning four All-Irelands in five years has to be explained away in some fashion the most usual resort being the 'physicality' or 'psychological edge' they employed basically anything other than the possibility that Tipp was actually the best hurling team of the time. I have no problem with that at all.
Nor indeed could I have any qualms with the term 'timber-merchantry,' as anyone from a county which has produced such noted 'timber-merchants' as Tommy Ryan, Jimmy Kennedy, Jimmy Doyle, Mick Burns, Mackey McKenna, Donie Nealon, Mick Roche, Theo and Nicky English, Michael Cleary, Tommy Dunne, Eddie Enright, Paul Kelly, etc, could never successfully argue this point with a man of Eamon's hurling pedigree.
However, my one gripe with Eamon is over the fact that he either (a) did not read Justin McCarthy's autobiography or (b) chose to ignore its contents in relation to the aforementioned Tipp team.
Instead he relied on a 1985 Examiner interview, which has been acknowledged by Justin as having been 'heat of the moment' stuff, and was surely superseded by the comments in his book where he said that the Tipp team of the '60s was "the best I've ever seen.
To say that 70% of their wins were based on their physical approach and the other 30% could be attributed to their hurling was a hasty, top-of-the-head remark.
That Tipp team were as much a machine as the great Kerry football team of Sheehy, O'Shea and Spillane ever were." Justin should know. After all, he played against them.
Martin Ryan,
www.premierview.pro.ie
Tipperary GAA Supporters' Website
