Humble Cummins revels in historic day

WHEN the public address proclaimed Tipperary’s final substitute of the day in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Sunday, it took Brendan Cummins a few moments to register that he was the player to be withdrawn.

It was no reflection on the performance of the Ballybacon-Grange man that he was being benched before the final whistle. The motives of the Tipperary management for the decision were obvious. On a historic day when he matched Christy Ring’s record of 65 senior hurling championship appearances and with Tipperary out of sight on the scoreboard, this was a chance for the Premier faithful to acclaim the achievement of their goalkeeper.

And Cummins was left humbled by the applause that erupted.

“I didn’t even see Darren (Gleeson) warming up,” revealed Cummins. “I heard number one called out and I thought, who is that? Then I realised that it was me! I didn’t realise anything like that was going to go on. It was nice and it was very touching. Every time of the last 65 times that I wore the blue and gold jersey, it was important to me as well. You try to do your best in it. When you know the history of Tipperary hurling it makes it very special to wear it as many times as you can. Thankfully, today was my equalling of his record.”

Cummins’ humility surfaced when he noted how deserving substitute netminder Gleeson was to get a run.

“Darren deserved his run as well, it wasn’t just about getting me off the pitch for a round of applause or whatever. Darren Gleeson has been a huge help to me over the last few years since he came into the panel because he pushes me to the very limit. Not only do I get the privilege of wearing the jersey, but I know that it’s hard earned because the man behind me is only champing at the bit.”

Sunday was an opportunity to reflect on a career that stretches back to 1995 — but it also brought a cherished provincial senior hurling medal.

Cummins has suffered nine defeats between hurling and football in Munster senior showpieces. Claiming his fourth hurling medal against Waterford was something to savour, yet his overriding emotion was relief that Tipperary do not have to negotiate the minefields of the back door.

“The medal was big. I’ve played in 13 Munster finals now, and thankfully I’ve won four. Whatever about milestones like that, the most important thing for Tipp hurling is that we jumped the fence today because the quarter-final looks like a tricky place to be now.”

After a Tipperary performance brushed with perfection, Cummins still believes there is scope for improvement.

“I think it’s very important to look at the things that we didn’t do so right. They scored a lot of points from frees. It’s very hard to be critical after a day like today but we have to look at ourselves very deeply now, as a backline especially, and see where we made mistakes.”

From his vantage point in goal, Cummins was able to observe the attacking wizardry of Lar Corbett as he blitzed the Waterford defence for 4-4. Yet it was not his scoring heroics that caught the eye of the goalkeeper.

“The main thing about Larry is that he keeps working for the team. He was still back in our half-back line in the last 15 minutes trying to hook or block. He epitomises what we’re all about. He has the flair but he also has the work rate.

“It’s all about work rate and then the scoreboard will look after itself.”

The hype surrounding Tipperary’s All-Ireland aspirations will escalate after their destruction of Waterford but Cummins is mindful of previous experiences where the county tripped up at the last-four stage of the All-Ireland series.

“The five-week break should help calm down the hype that goes on when you win a Munster final by as much as we did on Sunday. In 1993, Tipperary beat a Clare team well in a Munster final and suddenly found themselves in Croke Park being beat by Galway. I think the fact that we’ve a lot of confidence built up helps. When you’re trying to climb up the mountain for the first time, you’re edgy waiting during that five-week period. We’ve a lot of experience now over that wait.”