‘Tyrell’s Pass’ sealed up

ONE of the big questions coming into yesterday’s All-Ireland final, one of the potentially pivotal questions, was: how would Kilkenny deal with the on-fire Limerick full-forward line?

How would Michael Kavanagh, Noel Hickey and Jackie Tyrell deal with the five-goal All-Ireland semi-final demolition trio of Donie Ryan, Brian Begley and Andrew O’Shaughnessy?

Superbly, as it turned out.

There was not a score from play between them, sharpshooter Shaughs confined to just seven points from placed balls and neither Brian nor Donie had a shot on goal.

With such a paltry return from their three big inside-men, what hope did that leave Limerick?

Precious little, as it transpired.

By general consensus, most impressive of the above threesome – foursome, when you include Brian Hogan, after he had replaced the hamstrung Hickey in the 23rd minute – was Tyrell.

How the James Stephens star has grown these past two All-Ireland-winning seasons. In common with most of the Kilkenny players he still takes nothing for granted when it comes to holding his position, but let there be no doubt, this guy is now a complete Brian Cody-type player, a corner-back surely in the precise image and likeness of the man himself.

This was his response to how he prepared himself for the task of marking Limerick’s most dangerous finisher.

“I had some idea how I was going to approach it, but I didn’t want jump the gun either. I had to be sure I was playing first. Once I knew that, you start thinking about Andrew O’Shaughnessy, though it could have been someone else — you never know how a team will line out.”

But it was Shaughs, and Jackie and his co-defenders had their tactics.

“Andrew had been flying all year. He is a super hurler, you just can’t let him win the ball and I went out with that attitude. They’re a lethal forward line who were getting a lot of scores throughout the year. We knew we had to be at our best to stop them by being very tight at the back, bunching it in and crowding them out. We got that flying start — Eddie got a great goal and was absolutely flying; Henry got another goal and we got the few points, and just drove on from there. The quality of ball he (Shaughs) was getting wasn’t great which is a great help to me, and JJ then sitting right in front of me.

“They came back at us in the second half and were within five points but once again we managed to pull together, Eddie, Richie and boys working so hard up front, and we just got there in the end.” Just got there? Seven points? Hardly.

The nine-point start gained by Kilkenny left Limerick in an impossible position, though mind you, after Ollie Moran had broken through that outstanding rearguard for Limerick’s only goal, there were a couple of scares. One, a 20m free drilled by O’Shaughnessy, saved by JJ Delaney (“Pure reaction,” said JJ, “Luckily enough it went to the right side of the post, for a 65”), the second, ball breaking perfectly for Shaughs, only metres from goal, only for the Limerickman to be without his hurley.

His booted effort was saved on the line by – yeah, Jackie Tyrell. “We knew they were going to come back at us, their half-back line got on top and started launching ball after ball down on us. The goal came but we didn’t lose the cool, we kept the heads. JJ brought off an unbelievable save from the free, then the 65 went wide as well, which was a big boost for us. If that had gone in it might be a different story now but it didn’t, our forwards came back and tacked on a few scores again — Eddie, Richie, Aidan — that took the sting out of them again.

“We just worked so hard, we’re All-Ireland champions, and that’s all that matters to us now.”

And a word about Limerick?

“I think they’re a very physically fit and well-drilled team, but this is a big occasion. We’re lucky enough to have a few All-Irelands under our belt, we have the experience of being here, but it was new to them and maybe they got caught on the hop in the first few minutes. They never managed to get that back, but they fought to the end. They’re an excellent team, they’re going to take serious stopping next year. They’ll build on this, learn from this experience, be better from it.”

Building, learning, getting better – the Kilkenny way.