How come the west is asleep in Tipp hurling?

September 1, 1997. The day John Kiely began teaching in The Abbey was Conor O’Brien’s first as a student in the Tipperary town secondary school. Just as there was heartache for a young O’Brien in seeing Tipperary go down to Clare later that month, there had been for Kiely as a member of Tom Ryan’s Limerick panel against Wexford 12 months previous.

As manager and player, they claimed an All-Ireland colleges B title together five years later. Limerick’s 1984 All-Star and Kilmallock man Paddy Kelly was also over that team, the presence of Tipp’s closest rivals was, as far as O’Brien was concerned, something he had to get used to from an early age.