Benny Dunne: ‘We weren’t representing the club, the jersey or the crest with the standards we did’

Wonders never cease.

Benny Dunne has eight senior county medals but the novelty of tomorrow’s Tipperary SHC semi-final against Clonoulty-Rossmore isn’t lost on him.

Since then, Toomevara have been demoted and chastened - this is their longest spell without reaching a final since pre-1992 - but their transformation these last couple of seasons have been almost as pleasing as that golden era (1998-2008) for 38-year-old Dunne.

“It’s been too long,” he accepts, “but sometimes you get what you deserve.

“We weren’t at the standards in the last eight or nine seasons to get to a senior semi-final or final.

“We didn’t have anybody to blame other than ourselves because we weren’t representing the club, the jersey or the crest with the standards we did in previous years. We dropped the ball.”

“We’re back in every grade this year. If you look down to U12s, 14s, 16s, minors, U21s, juniors, there wasn’t an age group in the club that wasn’t competing with the bigger clubs. It’s very encouraging.”

Having the same management team these last couple of seasons, Denis Kelly and Benny’s brother and incoming senior county team coach Tommy as co-managers, Kevin Cummins as selector and Ross Dunphy, has been a big benefit.

Dunne admits: “Thankfully, we hit some really good level in the Seamus O’Riain Cup (Senior Division 2) last year, we won that county final and got some really good habits in terms of training.

“A lot of the younger guys had never won silverware before and to go unbeaten through that championship was huge. We’ve continued on from there and brought the standards up.

“It’s been huge for us to have the same management and guys know they have to show up in the right frame of mind and they need to show up fully fuelled. Ross has been a huge plus and he would have worked with us when we had Pat Helebert and were going well.

“He’s hugely popular with the guys and he’s brought us to the conditioning level we need to get to. Tommy is coaching, co-managing with Denis and Kevin (Cummins) being a good old head.”

Dunne has now put in over 20 senior seasons for Toomevara. The appeal hasn’t waned.

“I wouldn’t be in there still if I wasn’t enjoying it. When the fun and enjoyment goes out of it, that’s the end of it. I’m certainly not one of our most consistent players but at the same time, I might have something to offer in terms of vision of laying off a pass. But the legs definitely aren’t there anymore.

“The hands and the head aren’t too bad. It’s the younger guys who are making it fun and it’s still great craic to be around that dressing room. It’s very hard to replace and my view of it is when you’re gone, you’re gone and you don’t get to come back.”

A look at the 1999 county final match programme marking the win over Nenagh Éire Óg shows Dunne lining out at wing-back alongside some of the club’s greats like his brothers, George Frend, Rory Brislane, Pat King, Michael Bevans and Pádraig Hackett.

From there, Dunne would glean more success with the likes of Eoin Brislane, John O’Brien and Joey McLoughney.

“Joey and myself are the elders but Joey is still a young man and absolutely flying it.

“The beauty of the win (beating Drom-Inch 3-15 to 1-20 in the quarter-final) was all the guys like Tony Delaney and Mike Murphy were in the dressing room after and those guys have been watching us for eight or nine years not at a level we should have been at. To see the happiness in their faces gave us all a lift. Getting to a semi is great but you’d love to go one more step.”