Old guard Cummins young at heart
The first man he’ll look to is the first name on his team sheet — Brendan Cummins. And it’s little wonder the manager will show such faith in the imposing goalkeeper.
Cummins came on the Tipperary panel first in 1993, when still a minor, made his championship debut two years later, against Waterford, and from then until 2007 the Ardfinnan native was an ever-present in the Tipperary number one shirt winning three All Star awards during a golden period for hurling goalkeeping.
In 2007 however, he (along with star forward Eoin Kelly) was dropped with Gerry Kennedy, who had impressed with the U21 side installed between the posts.
The hurling world was agog, inside Tipperary especially, but Cummins kept his counsel and wouldn’t be drawn to any public comment on or off the record. Instead he offered his full support to his replacement, while resolving to do everything in his power to win back the jersey he had made his own for so long.
“I was just looking forward,” he explained this week. “All I ever wanted to do was look forward. As far as I’m concerned everything pre-2009 hasn’t happened, never mind 2007. I just look at Cork on Sunday, the last game I looked at before that was Kilkenny, the one before that was Limerick, the one before that I was a sub to Darren Gleeson in the League game against Galway. All I ever want is to be the best I could be on that day. That’s the way I’ve lived my life.”
His reward for such an attitude? A return to action in 2008, and his fourth All Star award.
Cummins was speaking at the Tipp media day in The Horse & Jockey. Though wearing a pin-stripe suit, shirt and tie, as befits a man in his position (Investment & Protection Specialist with AIB) there was no disguising the fact that, though he recently celebrated his 34th birthday, he is still in superb physical condition, and still also as enthusiastic as ever.
He said: “Oh Jesus yeah. The pressure is…” and he pauses, considers, “I don’t know — the older you get, do you start to wonder ‘how many more times do I have at getting a go at this?’ And that adds pressure to yourself that if you make a mess of it, you mightn’t have four or five more years to make up for it.
“The pressure is intense, the pressure certainly is why I play the game and it hasn’t waned as I’ve grown older.”
Against Cork especially, the pressure is greatest in Tipperary. Inside Munster, Cork and Tipp are the undisputed kingpins, but with 50 titles, against 37 for Tipperary, Cork have the upper hand at the moment. Indeed, it wasn’t until last year, in Cork, that Brendan had his first Munster championship win against the Rebels, a record he’d love to improve on tomorrow.
“I’ve never won against Cork in Thurles. You’d be saying ‘You’re around a while’, and with Tipperary especially you’d say you’d win an All-Ireland, but the way teams have come in the 90s, Clare and then Cork have come on, and then Kilkenny, so it goes in cycles — we’re just hoping that our cycle will come sooner rather than later.”
With the three youngsters mentioned above, all U21, several more on the bench, could this be the start of that cycle for Tipperary?
“I don’t know, there’s an awful long way to go. Positive steps, but until you actually win an All-Ireland title and put another one with it — then you can talk about serious cycles. What’s happened in Tipp is you won one All-Ireland and you sat back and thought, ‘Well that was great, we won that’, whereas in Kilkenny and Cork, they’re thinking about retaining it the next year straight away. Ideally that’s the kind of culture we’d like to have, but you have to win one first.”
Though there are 10 U-21s on the panel there are no high jinks, no need ever for a paternal word in the ear from the veteran. He laughed: “These fellas, I don’t know what they do at night! There’s no need to tell them stop drinking or stop staying out late — they just don’t do it, it doesn’t even come into their head.
“Around the dressing-room there’s no talk about ‘where were you last Saturday night?’ It’s amazing. They’re well grounded fellas, they’ve had success at underage, and it hasn’t gone to their head which is fantastic. You’d have a word with them here and there about how the games are going, especially in the build-up to bigger games, but they certainly don’t need to be told how to prepare for matches. I’m feeding off their energy to be honest with you!”
Finally, and going back to an earlier thread, what about Cork in Thurles tomorrow? In most eyes Tipperary are hot favourites, coming in on the back of a good league campaign and a very impressive league final performance against Kilkenny, while Cork — well, so much already written about their travails, newly-appointed manager Denis Walsh has only a few weeks to prepare his side for this one. Don’t be fooled, warns Cummins.
He insisted: “Cork are a serious threat, because they’re in the long grass. There was this David and Goliath thing going on with ourselves and Kilkenny in the league final — well Cork have us set up lovely now. They’re back together better than ever, they’re winning matches in the last number of weeks — tournament matches, but every match you win at county level coming up to championship is good for your confidence. They’ll come to Thurles feeling that if they can put up a good performance and win, it’ll set them up for the summer, the same as we know if we can win it’ll set us up.”
He continued: “What happened to them earlier in the year will certainly act as a motivation, but I find it hard to say they’ll have more incentive because when you play championship you can win an All-Ireland medal, and that’s incentive enough. Whatever burdens you’ve had along the way or whatever crosses you’ve had to bear might be motivational for you personally but when you’re going out as a group to win, that Celtic Cross is the most important motivation you’re ever going to have.”
CONNECT WITH US TODAY
Be the first to know the latest news and updates
