Tyrrell commits to Cats for 2015

Jackie Tyrrell has already confirmed he hopes to fill a Kilkenny jersey for at least one more season.

The 32-year-old claimed his eighth Celtic Cross on Saturday but has announced his intentions to claim a ninth next year.

“What do you think? Absolutely, yeah, no doubt about it.”

Tyrrell hopes none of his fellow elder statesmen opt to quit in the coming weeks.

“There was all the talk about lads being old and all that, but if you took myself and JJ [Delaney] off the starting 15 on Saturday you would have had a very young team.

“In a kind of sly, unique way Brian [Cody] has moulded in another team to carry on again. Lads will sit back and enjoy this and then assess their own goals. I haven’t spoken to any of the lads about retirements and I hope there won’t be anyway.”

Tyrrell has no intention of joining former players in the stands, a group Cody took aim at after some of them had questioned the spirit in the camp after the drawn game on September 7.

The manager’s anger was never relayed to the players, though.

“We didn’t draw upon it and it wasn’t really spoken about. To be honest, I don’t know who he is talking about in that. Obviously, he copped it but it doesn’t really bother me what they say.

“Maybe a bit of jealousy in it, I don’t know. Whatever they want to say they can say, we just go out and do the business on the field.”

What helped to spur on Tyrrell was coming back with a bang after last year’s All-Ireland quarter-final exit to Cork.

It wasn’t his overriding incentive but it was a factor seeing Cork and Clare meet in the 2013 final.

“They give you a small kick in the backside but if you need those kind of things to motivate you then you probably shouldn’t be playing the game. We all have standards and things like that. It was tough to go up and watch it last year but it was no harm either, just to see how lucky we were to have played in so many finals. Last year I was hoping to have more days like them again and thankfully we had it on Saturday.

“You are almost grieving for a year but the good thing about it is the year doesn’t be long rolling in. Given another month now and the analysis will start for next year, who is going to win it and who won’t. It just rolls from one year into the next.”

Tyrrell acknowledged Tipperary were the more impressive side in the drawn game but knew if he and his fellow defenders shaped up they would make life harder for their opponents’ attack.

“There was a passage of play on Saturday where we got three or four blocks in, turned it around and John Power got a score. That’s huge. That’s like scoring a goal.

“I was disappointed with my performance in the drawn game. The backs the first day, I didn’t think we defended as a unit, we defended as individuals.

“Whereas on Saturday we defended as a unit, we backed each other up. If you missed a ball there was a lad there right behind you and I thought ultimately that was the difference.