Jackie Tyrrell regrets Seamie Callanan 'cheap shot'

Nine-time All-Ireland winner Jackie Tyrrell admits his tackle on Seamus Callanan in the 2009 All-Ireland final was 'terrible'.

Seamus Callanan, Tipperary, in action against Michael Kavanagh, left, and Jackie Tyrrell, Kilkenny. in the 2009 Allianz GAA NHL Division 1 Final,

Kilkenny great Jackie Tyrrell says he cringes when he looks back on his 'cheap shot' on Seamus Callanan in the 2009 All-Ireland hurling final.

The game was only two minutes old when the Cats defender caught the Tipperary centre-forward with a huge shoulder to the chest.

Nine-time All-Ireland winner Tyrrell admits it was a 'terrible' tackle and should have been a red card but referee Diarmuid Kirwan merely threw the ball in.

Speaking on the BBC's GAA Social podcast, Tyrrell said that former Cork star Ben O'Connor and Tipp's Lar Corbett wouldn't be 'mad about me' either.

Tyrrell said of the Callanan hit: "I totally regret it, I should have got a red card. I somehow got away with it. I look back and I cringe, I cringe, what was I thinking? He was coming for a ball and the ball kind of got away from him and he was stretching for it and I came in and hit him in the midriff, a terrible shot, a cheap shot."

Tyrrell offered a revealing insight into life under 11-time MacCarthy Cup winning manager Brian Cody during the life and times interview.

The James Stephens duo are clubmates yet when it came to Tyrrell meeting Cody to confirm his retirement in 2016, the in-person conversation lasted just 13 minutes.

Tyrrell said the demands that Cody made of players were huge. He said an example of this was Cody telling the players that training was 'shite' and giving them five minutes to improve.

Tyrrell said: "He'd often say, 'When I go to training, at the start of training, when you're hitting the ball across and back, I should hear the ball zinging. I know if there's balls zinging, we're going to have a good session tonight. If I hear laughing and all this kind of thing', well then he'd pull you in."

Tyrrell gave an example of Cody's no-nonsense side when recalling how St Lachtain's forward Eoin Guinan was released from the panel.

Tyrrell said: "They obviously agreed to drop him. But we trained on a Friday night in Mooncoin, which is in the arsehole of Kilkenny, a big drive down, ran the shit out of us. It was January or February and then he (Cody) called Eoin over and dropped him. Like, he knew before going training that he was going to drop him and still brought him down to Mooncoin and ran the shit out of him and then dropped him. That kind of message, that filters around the group, you don't mess around here."

On Cody's famous icy handshake with Galway manager and former protege Henry Shefflin in 2022, Tyrrell said Cody should have known better.

He said: "I could understand Brian's position but I didn't like the way he didn't shake Henry's hand. Shake his hand, whether you like him or don't like him, whether you have issues with him or you don't, shake the man's hand. After all you've been through, after all he's done for you."