It’s back to the future when Tipperary are using the word ‘family’ again

Back when Tipperary beat Kilkenny in 2010, their full-back Paul Curran had a mantra and a mindset that encapsulated that of his team’s for that game.

Not Today.

At their last training session ahead of that year’s final, the team’s kitman John ‘Hotpoint’ Hayes had stuck his head into the players’ huddle to tell them something he felt they had to know. After the previous year’s final he had seen their coach Eamon O’Shea break down crying. “That man can’t cry again this year,” Hayes would say, and as he would dash off, the players stood there in silence, registering the image, until Eoin Kelly would break it by repeating Hotpoint’s sentiments. That couldn’t happen again. Not that year. Not that All-Ireland final.