Comparisons with Ring are rubbish, says hot-shot Kelly

SINCE he first put on a jersey, Eoin Kelly has been listening to the comparisons. In his native Mullinahone, he was the next John Leahy, in secondary school in St. Kieran’s, Kilkenny, he was the next DJ.

After his latest championship heroics, however, 14 points in a virtuoso performance against Limerick a couple of weeks ago, it all got a bit too crazy, even for the normally unflappable Kelly.

Now he’s the next Christy Ring, the new Christy Ring even. “All rubbish talk,” he says, with a shake of the head; “All rubbish talk, isn’t it?”

But it isn’t all rubbish talk. Eoin Kelly is a seriously good player, so good in fact that with him on board even an average team is a serious championship threat. That was certainly the case in that Limerick win; Tipperary came into the game under a cloud, a very erratic League campaign, talk of disunity in the camp, Limerick came in on a high.

One outstanding performance later and Tipp were through to this Sunday’s Munster semi-final, a joust with Waterford in Páirc Uí Chaoímh.

Thankfully, Eoin is as unimpressed by the team’s performance as he is with the praise lavished on himself. “One swallow doesn’t make a summer, we’re in the same boat after that Limerick game as we were this time last year, in a Munster semi-final.

“Last year we were lucky enough to beat Clare in the semi-final, then into the Munster final (against Cork), but we didn’t achieve what we wanted to, which was winning that final. We didn’t perform at all, only performed for 25 minutes in the second half. An excellent performance for that period, but if we could get that every day. The match against Limerick was satisfying in terms of work-rate and team commitment and spirit, that’s what we have, that’s what we’re hoping to build on for the Waterford game.”

While Kelly earned all the plaudits in that Limerick win, nobody more typified the work-rate and commitment he speaks of than team captain Ger ‘Redser’ O’Grady.

He ran himself into the ground, fought for every ball, got himself into fantastic positions, did everything right except the most crucial thing; he couldn’t find the posts. Five shots, five wides ‘till finally and to great acclaim from the Tipp fans, 24th minute of the second half, he broke his duck.

It wasn’t just the Tipp fans who appreciated his effort, however; Eoin Kelly too was impressed. “The thing about Redser is that if he gets the first score he’ll score everything else, but there was an incident in that match, he chased Brian Geary (Limerick centre-back) out to the corner, hooked him, kind of pushed him over the sideline, and that geed everyone up.

“Even Redser himself got keyed up, that was kind of what Babs has been preaching to us, work, work, work, work until you’re wrecked. If you’re wrecked after 25, 30 minutes, put your hand up and say, ‘look, I’ve given it my all, I’ve given 110% for Tipp.’”

What’s it been like playing under such an iconic figure like Babs Keating? “He’s been brilliant, but probably no different to the managers we’ve trained under for the last few years. He’s got the charisma, a great humoured guy. He played in something like ten All-Irelands, knows every trick in the book, very shrewd on the sideline, knows everything that’s going on. He’s been in the background for the last few years, saw what was going on, probably felt he had something to offer.

“He’s a Tipp-man through and through, and seeing the way things were going probably hurt him, but if he didn’t see some potential in the team he wouldn’t be getting into his car and driving down from Dublin several times a week for half-seven training.”

What about all those controversial critical comments on the team during the League? Meat and drink to us in the media, but how do the modern players react to it?

“When we’re listening to him and taking heed it’s just about general play. We all make mistakes, try and rectify that; he’ll call you over, a bit of man-management, he’s great like that. He’s well up with the times, he has moved on with the times.”

But does such public criticism not bother them, talk of guys more interested in getting free gear than in playing hurling? “Maybe we will get more gear out of it!” he laughs; “Probably a few fellas would be bothered alright, but I don’t think it came across the way he meant it. I think he meant that for the work we were putting in in training, fellas looking after themselves, minding themselves, it wasn’t showing up on the pitch. I think he understands players are training hard, he’s very good that way, anything the players want, if they’re injured or whatever, they’re looked after.”

What of Eoin Kelly himself, would he like to get a bit more out of it? Having just graduated from LIT as a construction engineer, he’s now in the market for a job. ! Would he like to be a pro, join the likes of fellow Tippmen Denis Leamy and Alan Quinlan?

“Of course I would, there’s no point in saying otherwise, you’d love to be a pro and get paid for doing what you love to do. The downside of it at the moment is when you get injured, people don’t understand the work that goes into getting back.

“John Mullane has been out for a while now with Waterford, I’m sure he’s working very hard to get back, doing things on the quiet, but lads don’t see that. But I think any player would love to be pro. I know Denis Leamy, a fierce nice fella, it’s great to see him become successful. We’d have played against him when he was hurling with his club, Boherlahan Dualla.

“I wouldn’t mind seeing him coming on now with ten minutes to go against Waterford, himself and Webster inside, that would be some combination!”

Tough game coming up for them this weekend; Waterford are coming in a wounded animal, their own Eoin Kelly suspended, the aforementioned John Mullane and Ken McGrath out for the past several weeks with broken bones in their hands (though they are both are back in training).

On paper, looks like Tipp should have the upper hand, but if we’re to learn anything from their win over Limerick, it’s this; there are no foregone conclusions in the Munster senior hurling championship.

Stop Eoin Kelly, and Waterford will have gone a long way to winning.