The Kieran Shannon interview: Meet hurling’s number cruncher, Damien Young

Damien Young may not be a recognisable face in the Tipperary management but the performance analyst and sports studies lecturer is playing a crucial role in how Michael Ryan’s team goes about its business in training and on gamedays, writes Kieran Shannon

Tomorrow he’ll discreetly make his way up to the analysts’ box in Nowlan Park, take out his laptop, and though the numbers he’ll code and crunch will be objective, he’ll view them through a certain and biased prism.

For 10 years now Damien Young has sat in both the backroom and background of Tipperary senior hurling, anonymous to the wider Tipp public not privy to the midweek inner workings of Dr Morris Park and Semple Stadium but a familiar and reassuring face to players and management who’ve passed through those corridors and dressing rooms over that decade.