Tipperary's All Ireland senior hurling win in 1964

Below are extracts from The Nenagh Guardian report of the All Ireland Senior Hurling final in September 1964.......

The skill and the power which has always been associated with Tipperary hurling was evidenced in all its glory at Croke Park on Sunday last when the League Champions added the All Ireland senior title to their honours list by beating holders, Kilkenny, 5-13 to 2-8.

Any victory over such famed rivals is to be cherished, but perhaps this success is all the sweeter in that now Tipperary have climbed to the top of the hurling ladder with twenty titles, one more than Cork.

Perhaps what is also most heartening is the conclusion which might justifiably be drawn from Sunday’s match, that Tipperary have the potential to stay on top for quite some time to come. Any doubts which might have lingered over from the team’s disappointing performance in the Munster Final against Cork were swept away and it could be difficult to level any kind of criticism at such a display of hurling skill and fervour.

Perhaps the tragedy is that when the bare score of this game goes into the records, it will be stripped of much of the glamour, excitement and good hurling too, which are belied by the final misleading score.

A Cork man I met after the game bemoaned the absence of the sweeping ground hurling, but it does seem that more and more nowadays the tendency is to pick the ball into the hand or hurley before parting with it. Be that as it may, there were moments in this game which will provide cherished memories long after the end result is consigned to the records.

The selectors must take a great deal of credit for two very shrewd substitutions.

They brought on Mick Lonergan at left corner back with Kieran Carey moving in full-back, and even more tellingly they followed this up by replacing an off form Larry Kiely with Liam Devaney.

Devaney was no sooner on the field when he swung in a ball from the left wing. Donie Nealon collected it and gave Kilkenny goalkeeper Ollie Walsh no chance.  After this there was no stopping Tipp. The great Thomastown goalkeeper was beaten twice in the space of a minute by Nealon as he allowed an easy shot to dribble out of his hand over the line.

After his early unease, Michael Maher settled down well until his injury in the second half.

Here too, was an example of great courage. We saw the spectacle of Tipperary’s fullback early in the second half, obviously dazed and out on his feet yet indomitably staggering back into his position before yielding eventually to the advice of first aid men to leave the field.

Tony Wall was caught once or twice by John Teehan at the start of the game but his positional sense and his neat clearances particularly in the critical period after half time were tremendous assets to Tipperary.

On the other hand, Mick Burns played superbly through the hour, answering those critics who felt that he was off form at the moment.

He certainly put the shackles on Eddie Kehir who never looked as dangerous as his scoring spree in last year’s All Ireland against Waterford.