Riches to rags and back again

IT’S fairytale time again. The small print changes every winter, but the plot remains the same. This year the unlikely lads are the Tullamore hurlers who have emerged from the shadows to challenge one of their code’s behemoths.

Beat Ballyhale Shamrocks in tomorrow’s Leinster final – and they are 1/9 outsiders to do it – and the rags to riches story will be complete.

These things usually follow a well-worn path, a road map from zero to heroes starting with the work of a few lone pioneers reviving the club at underage level and ending with the arrival of a new messiah to take over the seniors.