IN ALL FAIRNESS - Classing the greats

IN ALL FAIRNESS

 

With the most recent success of the Tipperary senior hurlers in winning a 28th All Ireland title, it complete the most successful decade for the county since the 1960's when they won four titles in five years.

That team was rightly regarded as the greatest team of all time with names that still roll off the tongue some sixty years later, Maher, Carey, John Doyle, Wall, Murphy, Burns, Gaynor, English, Nealon, Kiely, McKenna, McLoughlin and Jimmy Doyle.

However, there is a strong case to be argued that the current generation are as good, if not better, than the great team of the sixties, despite not having the same level of success to go with it.

First of all, the team of the 1960's had few real challengers. Tipperary were the most feared team in Ireland at the time, having the skill and the brashness to brush any opponent aside, be it in Munster or in an All Ireland. Indeed they had many teams beaten before games started such was their psychological hold.

The current generation didn't have that luxury as they had to contend with the greatest team of all time in their era in Kilkenny who won eight All Ireland's in ten years between 2006 and 2015, as well as being defeated in one of the other finals. If Kilkenny weren't around, you could argue that Tipperary would have won another two or three All Ireland's and they themselves would have been classed as the best team of all time.

The unfortunate aspect for the current vintage, particularly the likes of Brendan, Padraic & Patrick Maher, Noel McGrath and Seamus Callanan who have been around the squad for twelve years now (thirteen in the case of Callanan), is that their greatness is undermind as they have had to live in Kilkenny's shadow.

Everything they have done is in comparison to what Kilkenny have or would have done. When Tipp denied Kilkenny in 2010, they were expected to progress on and begin a period of dominance themselves but rarely in the history of any sport does one great team be followed immediately by another. It didn't happen but Tipp made a fair first of it all the same.

If Tipperary made heavy weather of beating an opponent, they would have been tagged that Kilkenny would have been more ruthless and would have put them to the sword.

Between 2006 and 2012, Kilkenny were good, very good, but they didn't have to beat much in that time. Cork were coming to the end of their great team; Limerick, Waterford and Galway were too green to make any headway despite making All Ireland finals. It was left to just Tipperary to provide the challenge and bar the 2012 All Ireland semi-final humiliation which was self inflicted, they did that.

Okay, they fell short in '09, '11 & '14 but the first and third finals were flip of the coin stuff with Kilkenny getting the breaks at crucial stages. Arguably the 2011 which Kilkenny were deserving winners remains the most frustrating defeat despite it being a final many have forgotten. Kilkenny were the better team on the day yet just one by four points despite Tipperary never really throwing a punch. It wouldn't have taken much more than day to have won it and if Kilkenny had been beaten in back to back finals, could their spirit have been broken then, rather than in 2016 when Tipperary got the better of them once more.

In 1999, the greatest Tipperary hurling team of the century was selected and it contained six of the 1960's vintage in brackets: Tony Reddin; Mickey 'The Rattler' Byrne, Tony Brennan, John Doyle, Jimmy Finn, Tony Wall, Tommy Doyle, Mick Roche, Theo English; Jimmy Doyle, Mick Ryan, Liam Devaney; Paddy Kenny, Martin Kennedy, Nicky English.

You could argue that if an updated team were picked now, Brendan Maher and Padraic Maher could hold their own in the half back line while Noel McGrath and Seamus Callanan would be pushing hard for inclusion further up the field. The sheer longevity of their careers gives them extra bonus credit, plus they aren't finished yet.

The two corner back positions would appear locks for eternity in the Rattler and the great John Doyle, but considering another Holycross man in Cathal Barrett has won 2 All Stars in his six championship seasons so far as well as a Young Hurler of the Year accolade, he's creating some debate there too if he continues to perform at the same level in the coming years.

Of course, there are no right and wrong answers to such a debate as to every Tipperary hurling supporter it is through the eye of the beholder of who they perceive to be great but in terms of a team, the current Tipperary team have done a lot to suggest that they can be classed among the greats.