Late bloomer Tom Phelan grasping his Kilkenny opportunity

Going through the profiles of the 15 men who started the semi-final and the usual cast of subs, Tom Phelan’s bio stood out for being shorter than most of his colleagues

LATE BLOOMER: Tom Phelan of Kilkenny in action against Adam Hogan of Clare during the All-Ireland SHC semi-final at Croke Park. Pic: Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile

Those fortunate enough to be in attendance at Kilkenny’s All-Ireland final media event last Wednesday week came away with an expanded waistline and hands weighed down with goodies.

We had been tipped off beforehand about the famous Langton’s steak that is served up once the interviews have been teased out and taped. Nobody, though, had told us that the eight-ounce ribeye was only part two of a sumptuous three-course setting.

Gingerly rising from the table after a feed of brisket, steak, and brown bread ice cream gateau, we were handed an Avonmore bag with enough milk and butter to see us to Christmas.

Our hands and bellies already full, the good Kilkenny folk came with one last gift to send us on our way. And as tasty and as thankful as we were for the food, the 16-page booklet containing detailed profiles of each panellist was easily the most useful item of the day.

Going through the profiles of the 15 men who started the semi-final and the usual cast of subs called down from the stand, Tom Phelan’s bio stood out for being shorter than most of his colleagues.

Of the six honours listed under his name, only two were inter-county related, and both of those Leinster senior medals were pocketed in the last 13 months.

For a man who turns 28 on Christmas Day, that left plenty of blanks regarding where he was and what he was doing pre-2022.

Some of those blanks we were successful in filling in. They paint a picture of an outlier. Someone for whom the door opened long after it was supposed to be closed shut.

Tom Phelan never hurled minor for Kilkenny. He was a two-season U21 panellist. Of the four U21 games Kilkenny played across 2015 and 16, Phelan’s involvement totalled 18 minutes. He was introduced as a sub in all four, but never earlier than the 53rd minute.

A raft of U21 teammates - the likes of goalkeeper Darren Brennan, Conor Delaney, Huw Lawlor, Paddy Deegan, and Billy Ryan - received the Cody call-up in the next year or two. But not Phelan. He was instead a second half sub when the county won the All-Ireland intermediate in 2017.

Nickey Brennan lives three fields over from the Phelan’s in Conahy country. His namesake English from across the border in Tipp would regularly be in touch “raving” about the neighbour and his UCD Fitzgibbon performances.

Towards the end of the last decade, members of the Kilkenny backroom team got in touch to enquire about the neighbour. Phelan, though, had committed to a summer abroad and so there was no black and amber induction. Not for a while yet, anyway.

Ahead of the 2022 season, the door swung open for the milk supply manager at Tirlán. A 26-year-old inter-county debutant. Evidence that there is no age limit on stepping up and stepping in.

But while Cody welcomed him in, there was nobody serving brisket or brown bread gateau. He’d have to earn his feed.

Phelan made only one championship start in his debut summer. And that was over after 45 minutes. He didn’t make the matchday panel for either the All-Ireland semi-final or final.

This year’s league didn’t see him climb any higher on the ladder. The half-forward had only two involvements, both from the bench.

Having not seen game-time in rounds 1 and 2 in Leinster, Derek Lyng handed him just his second championship start away to Antrim. The late-blooming 27-year-old has not been out of the team since.

“He was there or thereabouts in the league. But never really hit the heights you’d kind of be hoping,” says Lyng of Phelan’s 10 league minutes this spring.

There’s only one question can follow that. What changed?

“He’s worked really hard, put his head down, and we saw him over many training matches, you could see his form improving.

“He’s hugely athletic, lots of hurling, lots of pace. He got an opportunity, he grasped it, and he’s never looked back.” 

That turn of foot was shown two weeks ago. Speeding away from John Conlon and Diarmuid Ryan, Séadna Morey could only halt his charge by illegal means. The resulting 20th minute free was converted.

Although withdrawn on the hour mark, his opening half against Clare was comfortably the high-water mark of this infant Kilkenny journey.

He forced three turnovers, two of which came against Tony Kelly and Shane O’Donnell, won the aforementioned free, and also chipped in with a point to bring his championship tally to 1-9.

“When you’re not getting games, you can sometimes drop your head, give up the chase really. But if anything, Tom put his head down and worked even harder. We could see that in training, and he got the opportunity on the back of that,” Lyng continues.

“It’s taken an extra year or two, but he’s in a good place now.” 

Brennan reckons the neighbour got his initial opportunity under Cody partly because the Kilkenny conveyor belt of young 20-somethings has been slack enough in recent times.

“When you are called up, what difference does the age make,” says the former GAA president. “He's had a decent year without setting the world on fire. On Sunday he's going to meet the biggest test he has ever met. He's meeting man-mountains in Kyle Hayes and Diarmaid Byrnes.” 

From relative obscurity to rubbing shoulders with the best of them. Phelan has already proven it’s never too late in the day to make an impression. He now needs to prove himself on the biggest day of all.