Jonjo Farrell: It was my greatest hurling day by a million miles

GREATEST DAY: Thomastown players, Jonjo Farrell, left, and Robbie Donnelly celebrate. Pic: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile

Thomastown’s second ever Kilkenny senior hurling title was coming, Jonjo Farrell knew. The only question was would he fill a playing part in it.

A winner of two All-Irelands with Kilkenny in the mid-2010s, just after Thomastown were plying their trade at junior level, Farrell turned 36 last month. As he says himself, he brings the average age of the team “up a good bit”.

He hung on believing that he would be togged out for an occasion like Sunday. Riches came in the form of Leinster and All-Ireland intermediate success last season but nothing compared to winning the Tom Walsh Cup, his greatest hurling day “by a million miles”.

He had absolute faith it would happen for this panel of players. “Without a doubt. Those young lads have won a minor B, an U21 A; they’ve been coming, coming, the whole time and I said to myself, ‘Stick in at it and ride the crest of the wave with those lads’. They’re an unbelievable group.

“To come up and do it in the first year is something else. We saw Clara doing it a few years ago (2013). Maybe it’s easier to do it the first year when you have the momentum of intermediate success behind you. We might have a few lads going off and different things happening. You have to grasp it when the chance is in front of you.

“We won a junior back in 2005 and another one in 2012 but that was the only success I had until last year, we won the intermediate and went on to win the All-Ireland. Then today! The end of my career has been a lot more successful than the start of it. We’ll keep going, anyway.”

The comprehensiveness of Thomastown’s victory over O’Loughlin Gaels on Sunday surprised Farrell and his team-mates.

“We’re still trying to come to terms with it. Even looking at the scoreboard coming off – you don’t appreciate it while you’re playing – to win by 11 points was unbelievable for us.

“We have the utmost respect for O’Loughlin’s as champions but we came in with a job to do and we set the tone early, lads just putting their bodies on the line all over the field. The weather didn’t bother us at all. To come out on top like that is just dreams come true, really.”

The fitness of Thomastown in tiring conditions stood out. “They’d run all day and hit all day,” smiles Farrell. “It’s unreal and something we didn’t have for years. We probably lacked physicality but now we have it in spades.

“Everyone knows the history. We were beaten in three intermediate county finals and a semi-final. There was a lot of hurt there but the team was young at that time and they’re after coming now and we’re at the top table.”

Knocking out multiple champions Ballyhale Shamrocks in the quarter-final ahead of the club’s first SHC final since 1988, there might have been a danger of distraction but Farrell complimented the levelheadedness of the squad.

“The first three matches, we played James Stephens, Tullaroan and Bennettsbridge – three perennial contenders in Kilkenny and then to beat Ballyhale Shamrocks, our near neighbours and legends of the game – that gave us huge, huge confidence. We backed ourselves.

“I was only saying after the last day how grounded lads are. They don’t seem to get nervous maybe because they’re winning the whole way up along. You walk into the dressing room before the match and you think it’s only a challenge.

"The atmosphere was brilliant. Lads just knew that everyone had a job to do and everything would take care of itself.”