The rise of Tipperary's 'ultimate team player' Darragh McCarthy

TIPP'S TOP MAN: Tipperary's Darragh McCarthy in action against Cork. Pic: ©INPHO/Ken Sutton.

Only one thing was ever going to hold back Darragh McCarthy.

As it turned out, the supposed drawback was the making of the Tipperary starlet.

“From an early age, people in the club knew he had exceptional skill but he was small for his age,” recalls his Toomevara club-mate Eoin Brislane.

“I remember him in this big, baggy jersey and he was nailing frees from all over the place. I remember being by far the smallest player on the field but he ran the show and he was the main man even back then.

“Because he was the smallest man and there was pressure with that, I always felt it stood to him because he had to fight for everything. Now that he’s filled out to be a fine man, he has the physique to match his hurling ability.”

As one of the few teenagers regularly playing senior inter-county hurling at the moment, comparisons with Eoin Kelly will be drawn. Brislane traces the line himself but McCarthy’s minor years with Tipperary were hardly plated with gold.

He was the county’s U12 Community Games long puck champion in 2017. Two years later, he part of the Tipperary team that won the Tony Forristal U14 tournament.

In beating Offaly in Waterford then as they did in the 2022 All-Ireland minor final, Tipp became the first county to complete the Forristal-Irish Press Cup double.

McCarthy didn’t start that year’s final, though. Didn’t begin one game in that year’s championship having been brought into a training squad by manager James Woodlock the season before.

“I brought him in 2021 for Covid,” Woodlock recounts. “He was on the extended panel. I had 16 of them young lads getting ready for the following year because we only had six weeks of a run-in because of Covid.

“There was absolutely no question Darragh was going to make it. He was unbelievable. That year (2021), he was very young and he hadn’t any work put in with the county but you could already see he was a leader even on the extended panel.

“He was ahead of his years, he was direct, he was aggressive. You couldn’t ask for a better young fella. He could have started on that 2022 All-Ireland winning team but he was winning most matches for us coming off the bench. He was finishing it for us.

“The boys starting loved seeing him coming on and he attacked every game when he came on. He was so good coming off the bench he just fell into it. I’d have spoken to him the day after that final but he didn’t mind. Never a cross word. He knew what was expected of him. He was above his years for a 15, 16 year-old.”

Last year, in between starring for and captaining St Joseph’s Nenagh CBS to Harty Cup, scoring the winning point in the Munster U20 final and amassing a hefty 3-62 in the senior county championship as Toomevara reached a first final in 16 years, McCarthy was brought into the senior set-up to get a taste of what was to come.

He is one of seven players who has started the opening four league games so far for Tipperary. With 0-25 of his 2-32 tally so far coming frees (the goals coming from penalties and one point from a 65), he will without question be the free-taker in the Munster championship.

“I haven’t been in there but I have no doubt that as the 19-year-old pushing on 20 he is already one of the leaders in that group,” says Woodlock.

Tipperary's Darragh McCarthy takes a free. Pic: ©INPHO/Ken Sutton.

“People will need to be patient with him. The league has been great experience for him but championship is going to be completely different ball game.

“Whether it’s this year or the next, he will deliver for Tipperary but he needs to be given time. He’s only a chap and not too many others have made the step-up to senior as quickly as he has done. He has a lot of miles on the clock jumping from a minor to a Harty to an U20 to a senior campaign and he won a freshers with UL too.”

Brislane can’t say enough about McCarthy’s dedication to the game. He was over a Monaleen team in a tournament in Toomevara last June when he noticed McCarthy jumping the gate to get in some free practice. Later that day, he lined out in the U20 All-Ireland final defeat to Offaly.

“He’s just always there. He works a lot on his game. We want to be careful in not putting too much pressure on him because Tipp and Toomevara need him badly. Darragh doesn’t understand the word ‘rest’ – he just wants to keep going and going. That would be my only concern for him because he needs the proper recovery time.

“He’s pure and utter honest. It’s very rare to get a forward to work as hard off the ball as on it. If the ball’s not coming in, he’s going looking for it. He’s honest in how he prepares and plays and team-mates feed off him.”

Woodlock agrees. “His greatest attribute is his attitude, which I would put ahead of talent in picking a player. It’s just superb. He will thrive in the senior set-up now because he will soak up all the advice he will be getting and what the likes of Ronan Maher do.

"It’s not about him either. He is the ultimate team player.”