'The one thing they don't do is panic' - Maturity key as Loughmore build on legacy
TO THE VICTORS: Loughmore-Castleiney’s Liam McGrath lifts the Dan Breen Trophy after the Tipperary Senior Hurling Championship Final, FBD Semple Stadium, Tipperary 26/10/2025. Pic: INPHO/Paul Barrett
A familiar name will be engraved on the Dan Breen Cup but this was the latest in a series of captivating Tipperary senior hurling finals.
Loughmore-Castleiney were full value for their sixth SHC title and the first time they have retained it. They had 10 different scorers, showed the composure they are known for and led by six points going into additional time.
They had been seven to the good early in the second half only to see it swallowed whole by Nenagh Éire Óg who will be counting the cost of errors at both ends of the field. All three goals scored were fortuitous and Nenagh’s wide count at 12 was twice Loughmore’s tally.
Scorer of five points, Jake Morris was a torment at times for the Loughmore defence but Sam O’Farrell was quiet compared to some of the excellent performances he had delivered on the way to the final.
Captain Liam McGrath’s 48th-minute goal was crucial to Loughmore-Castleiney’s success. His was the most conventional of the three scores, although Nenagh Éire Óg’s Dermot McTiernan would have wished he made a better attempt to stop it.
McTiernan had earlier in the half failed to negotiate a long-range John McGrath free and Loughmore-Castleiney were seemingly coasting seven points ahead.
However, Nenagh Éire Óg, searching for their first senior county success in 30 years, tigerishly fought back, led by Morris who was in mean form. But they too required some fortune when Michael Heffernan’s free was left by Eoin O’Connell in the 42nd minute and goalkeeper Aidan McGrath watched it pass him into the net.
Whether McGrath shouted to O’Connell to allow the ball to go wide or the defender himself assumed it was going that way, the error brought Nenagh level. There was still nothing between the sides when John McGrath’s solo sucked in defenders and he then passed outside to his cousin and captain Liam to strike for goal.
Loughmore never surrendered that lead. Mason Cawley did cut the difference to two but the next five of the next six points came from the mid Tipperary men. In the closing stages, Noel McGrath pushed into a sweeping role to ensure there would be no further surprises and while Morris continued to threaten Loughmore remained resolute.
Manager Éamonn Kelly was delighted with how his team responded to the Heffernan goal. “Afterwards, they got another one that was a carbon copy of it. That's what happens in big games like this. It's how you react in those situations. The lads are a very, very mature group. The one thing they don't do is panic.”
He couldn’t say enough about how they saw out the game.
“It's very hard to train it. But there's a lot of them with a lot of mileage on the clock. They've done now what no other Loughmore team did before them, they've won it back-to-back. To be the best in a club like Loughmore is a huge credit to them.” Kelly continued: “They set themselves very high standards. They're very quick to call one another out if somebody is lagging behind. They're a really, really special group. It's a pleasure for me to be asked to be involved with them.”
Opposing corner-backs Lorcan Egan and Conor Hennessy had been charged with shadowing the opposition’s dangermen Morris and John McGrath respectively. McGrath spent the early part of the half as a fourth half-forward for Loughmore-Castleiney but he was largely shackled by Hennessy. Morris threatened to break through a couple of times but the moves didn’t come off.
The sides were level six times in the first 19 minutes. Michael Heffernan, returning to the team after a shoulder injury ruled him out of the semi-final win over Drom and Inch, had four points in his account in that first quarter, two from play.
There had been injury concerns around Liam McGrath and Tomás McGrath coming into the game but they showed little illness in the first half. They and Ciarán McCormack, who sent over three points including a sideline cut from over 60 metres, carried Loughmore’s greatest scoring threat.
After John McGrath levelled the game at six points apiece in the 19th minute, the champions hit Nenagh for another three points without reply. Noel McGrath’s effort from close to the middle of the field under the Ryan Stand was a beauty. McCormack arrowed over another point from the following puck-out and Ciarán Connolly repeated the dose in the 22nd minute to give Loughmore a three-point cushion.
The margin was two when a vital hook on McCormack denied him a goal attempt in the 28th minute. Loughmore delivered another couple of points to stretch their lead to four before Cawley and Philp Hickey clawed a couple back.
McCormack’s sublime sideline finished the scoring and Loughmore had a 0-13 to 0-10 advantage at the turnaround. And that was the margin in the end for a group who will have designs of a strong Munster campaign when it begins against Éire Óg Ennis in a semi-final Zimmer Biomet Cusack Park on November 16.
The game means the McGrath brothers will miss out on Tipperary’s team holiday to South Africa. “I'd say they'll make up for it in Loughmore in the next few days, what they miss out on in Cape Town,” Kelly smiled.
J. McGrath (1-5 frees); L. McGrath (1-3); C. McCormack (0-3, 1 sideline); T. McGrath, C. Connolly, N. McGrath (0-2 each); E. Connolly, B. McGrath, L. Treacy, E. Meagher (0-1 each).
M. Heffernan (1-8, 1-3 frees, 1 65); J. Morris (0-5); P. Hickey, J. Keller, M. Cawley (0-2 each); S. O’Farrell, J. Mackey, T. Heffernan (0-1 each).
A. McGrath; E. Meagher, W. Eviston, B. McGrath; J. Ryan, L. Egan, E. O’Connell; N. McGrath, C. Connolly; E. Connolly, T. McGrath, C. McCormack; J. McGrath, L. McGrath (c), C. McGrath.
L. Treacy for C. McGrath (h-t); T. Maher for E. Connolly (inj 43); D. McCahey for E. O’Connell (44); P. McCahey for C. McCormack (51); P. O’Connell for L. McGrath (62).
D. McTiernan; J. Donelan-Holohan, M. Carey; P. Murphy, B. Heffernan, M. Cawley; C. Ryan, J. Mackey; J. Keller, J. Morris, S. O’Farrell; M. Heffernan, P. Hickey, B. West.
T. Heffernan for B. West (32); A. Carey for J. Mackey (47); C. McCarthy for M. Carey (54); B. O’Brien for P. Hickey (56).
C. Doyle (Silvermines)
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