Tyrell still seeks cure for pain of Tipp defeat
There’s a flip side to the coin, however. Those have been five long painful months in Kilkenny, even today the bruises are still raw, still hurting, still burning. Never mind the fact this team had already set all kinds of records that may never be broken – unbeaten for four championship seasons (the Cork four-in-a-row team of the 40s lost a postponed Munster final to Tipperary), 21 championship wins in a row, aggregate scores, average winning margin.
Given what was at stake, this wasn’t just any old defeat, this was destiny denied, and denied by their most bitter rivals at that. Oh it hurt alright, hurt no-one more than outstanding defender, Jackie Tyrell.
“Ah, sure, you’re just going around in a daze afterwards. I’d say it was around three weeks after the final I was driving around and I couldn’t think of anything else only the All-Ireland; everywhere you look, it’s ‘if this, if that, if the other’. To go to that from where we had come, winning four All-Irelands in a row, it’s just…” and he pauses, considers – “To go from losing an All-Ireland to winning one is great, but to go from winning to losing I can’t describe – you just want to replay that match straight away, and you can’t.
“In Kilkenny, everywhere you went for weeks afterwards it was hurling talk, the All-Ireland – ‘if this, if that’. I’m in sales with Glanbia and Kilkenny is part of my area, but I didn’t go near anywhere in the county for three or four weeks afterwards. I couldn’t face it.
“You’re going into the stores, meeting managers, meeting customers, and they all want to talk about it. I just couldn’t. Slowly but surely you get your head around it, start getting back with the club, starting getting it out of your system, but sitting here now, five months later, it’s still eating me inside, you still want to go back and play it again.
“But you can’t, and that’s sport. Tipperary went through that themselves all through 2010, but that drove them on to do what they did last year and now they are the All-Ireland champions.
“We’d be hoping that if it’s hurting that badly with us, we’ll put it right.”
Which brings us nicely to this evening in Semple Stadium, Tipperary versus Kilkenny, the opening shots of the 2011 Allianz NHL, and a very early opportunity for Jackie and Kilkenny to redress some of that lost balance. “That’s right, and a lot of people are looking forward to it. I think the fact it’s under lights on a Saturday night is great – it was disrupted last year by the snow, but now it’s finally going to happen. It’s going to be interesting alright, that’s all I’mgoing to say really!”
A big night ahead then, but a big year ahead too for both Tipperary and Kilkenny. Tipperary have changed managers, Liam Sheedy riding off into the sunset to be replaced by Declan Ryan, and they will be under pressure to repeat. Brian Cody and Kilkenny have maintained their mutual bond, but, even with the burden of that unbeaten monkey off their backs, they too are still under pressure, reckons Jackie.
“An awful lot of eyes, yes, but there’s pressure there too in that everyone is expecting this big backlash. In years gone by, when we’ve lost All-Irelands, in ‘03 and ‘05 (also, under Brian Cody, in ‘99), we came back to win, and everyone is saying now the same thing will happen. But it’s not as easy as that, it just doesn’t happen like that. Definitely you get the hunger back, the motivation, but there will be no knee-jerk reaction, like Kilkenny are just going to stroll back into an All-Ireland final again and do the business again – it’s just not that easy.
” But I know, from talking to the lads, the bit of bite is there, they’re eager to get on with the year and see where it takes us. Certainly hurling is very much top of my agenda at the moment; every day of your life you have to be living it, watching what you’re eating, making sure you’re getting your rest, getting ready for training.
“These are probably your best years, 28, 29, 30 (he’s 29 in June), you want to make the best of them, get the most out of them.”
Tonight, it starts in Thurles. Where will it end?
TIPPERARY GAA chiefs have agreed a deal with existing inter-county sponsors Enfer to remain on board for another season. Premier officials were examining other options, including car maker Skoda, but recent discussions have succeeded in securing Enfer for the 2011 campaign — starting with tonight’s glamour Allianz NHL Division One tie against Kilkenny.
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