'We produce legendary players, suddenly up pops McCarthy' - Darragh travels full circle in debut season
FULL CIRCLE: Darragh McCarthy celebrates after scoring his side's second goal from a penalty. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile.
Fun. Go and have your fun. Even in the grown-ass world of inter-county hurling, a teenager’s first priority should always be to have fun.
Darragh McCarthy had his fun on the Saturday evening of February 22. Round 4 of the League. Cork the visitors to Semple Stadium.
Spring nuggets are forever digested too quickly. The taste on the pallet never holds to April and the serving of the season’s main course.
The Toomevara teen tormented Cork at length. The 19-year-old had clipped four from play by the 20th minute. Approaching the conclusion of the first half, he was fouled by Ger Millerick.
He converted the resultant free for his third placed-ball effort. Into injury-time and he threw over a superb point from underneath the Ryan Stand. His eighth white flag of the half.
It was the sole spring fixture where Cork came off second best and it was McCarthy chiefly responsible for such.
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Rightly or wrongly, this contribution was erased from every Up for the Match preview that took place the country-over last week. Didn’t get a nose in. The conversation centred on how Cork had tormented him since and he tormented himself when in the company of red.
No flag, a single assist, and a 47th minute withdrawal on the afternoon of the League decider. Three weeks later, Noel McGrath rushed out to him like a father might a devastated son following U12 county final heartbreak. A dawk and a first-minute dismissal. A disaster.
The determination to have fun never deserted him. On the bus up from Thurles yesterday morning, he was playing games on his phone and having a laugh with teammates.
“There is no seriousness or uptightness,” Mikey Breen said of the corner-forward.
“I think the whole camp was that way coming up, we kept talking about enjoying the day, and you could see that fully come out. It was a fun second-half to play in.”
Maybe that was the sole mindset open to McCarthy for this debut All-Ireland final appearance. Two sending-offs in his debut summer. An amount of tears and cross-holding from his banished seat in Páirc Uí Chaoimh and the Hogan Stand. His teammates twice left in a hole because of him. Criticism from several corners.
If they were his mental lodgings, the 19-year-old kid would have been, in his own post-match words, “curled up at home in bed” yesterday. Team psychologist Cathal Sheridan kept his focus on the enjoyment.
The Cork supporters jeered him right from his very first free on 10 minutes. They grew impatient with his grass tossing and standing over the sliotar and standing back from the sliotar.
His ninth and final placed ball effort in injury-time was nailed, the same as the eight before. Those that had earlier jeered were now streaming out onto Jones Road.
The kid raised a fist to the stands. He’d had his fun. His fun was not finished.
In the subsequent play, he displayed a devastating first touch to control a Breen ground pull. A quick assist to Noel McGrath. The point scored, the master immediately pointed a finger of appreciation in his direction.
From consoling him in the first minute at Páirc Uí Chaoimh to celebrating his young genius in the final minute at Croke Park. The full circle travelled.
“To win finals, you need big moments and big players, and they stood up. You could see there today, Darragh was just taking his time. He was doing his thing and he was putting the ball over the bar. I know he was getting jeers from the crowd, but he blocked it out,” said Breen.
A kid by birth cert, a man in the eyes of his manager. A man of class, added Liam Cahill, in how he blocked out the noise not just yesterday but all summer.
Remember, after all, that Darragh had to sit out their season-on-the-line fixture away to Clare in early May. Had the blue and gold flag fallen there, his self-inflicted absence would not have been spared.
Had they fallen two weeks ago against Kilkenny, his carelessness for that second yellow slap on Eoin Murphy would have had him front of the firing line.
And so he arrives into this All-Ireland final and from 15 shots, misses just once. At 1-19 to 1-17 11 minutes into the second half, he nails the next 1-3, including a nerveless penalty. A lead of two lengthened to eight. 1-13 in total.
“We produce legendary players like Jason (Forde), Eoin Kelly, and (Seamus) Callanan, and all these. They can't hang around forever. You'd say, where are you going to find the next one and suddenly up pops McCarthy,” said Liam Cahill.
“19 years of age, he has now arrived. From a serious club up there in Toomevara. Them fellas would eat you alive. It was never going to be a case of Darragh's character being questioned or doubting himself.
"That is the class of this young man and the resilience he has, and he just loves his hurling. And when you love hurling like that, you get your rewards. He got his just rewards today.”
Each of the 40 players on the Tipp panel text McCarthy the day after the Cork sending off to keep the head and spirit up. The same inbox will be bursting this morning.
A Harty Cup, an All-Ireland U20 medal, and Celtic Cross in the space of 18 months. For context, if needed, his 20th birthday is not for another month. Not since 2013 have we seen a teenager have this much fun on the final day.
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