'There was nobody talking about winning All-Irelands' - Class of 2016 revel in Tipperary's rags to riches transformation

RTÉ News​

21-07-2025

This time last year a third All-Ireland medal seemed a far-fetched dream.
But that is what Tipperary's Michael Breen, Jason Forde, Seamus Kennedy, captain Ronan Maher and John McGrath have today.
Kennedy played the last 20 minutes of yesterday's All-Ireland final victory over Cork, coming on shortly before now four-time winner Noel McGrath, and the others all started, making key contributions to a sensational 15-point win.
"The resilience of this man," said manager Liam Cahill of Forde (who scored two points from play) afterwards. "He's like a good wine, he gets better with age. Breen gave an exhibition today and Noel comes on, Seamus Kennedy, John McGrath, they're just different class."
How did a team that finished bottom in Munster last year - with just a single point from drawing with Waterford - get back on top so quickly?
"It's a number of things," says Forde, 31, who reveals he sat down with Cahill to discuss the future after a rough 2024 in which he lost his role as free-taker.
"We were so hurt after last year. Tipp is obviously such a mad hurling county. I remember meeting Jake Morris a couple of weeks after and you're nearly ashamed to show your face around because of the manner in which we went out.
"When I met Liam, I just said we couldn't leave things like that, the year that we had. Having played for Tipp for 13 seasons and winning All-Irelands, to leave it on that note, it just wouldn't have felt right.
"And you could see the younger players that were coming. This is Liam's third year with this group of players. We are after finding exceptional young players, three players in Darragh [McCarthy], Sam [O'Farrell] and Oisin [O'Donoghue] that we didn't have last year.
"We just went back to the grindstone, we trained really, really hard. We've been finishing all the games really strong and I put that down to work our S&Cs have done with us. When it comes down to the last ten minutes, we back that we have the legs, the boys coming off the bench to finish the job as well.
"We said as a group all year, there's nobody going to come and save us. We had to go back and put in the work and drag ourselves up out of it and thank God we did."
Having performed well to draw with Limerick on the opening day in April, Tipp imploded after McCarthy's early red card against Cork.
That meant they went to All-Ireland champions Clare needing a first Munster win in 10 attempts to keep their hopes of progression alive. They got it, McGrath and Andrew Ormond (in his breakthrough performance) scoring two goals each in a 4-18 to 2-21 victory that sparked a run of six to glory.
"Munster is so tight and hard to get out of, you are targeting every game," says Forde. "But that Clare game, the Tipp crowd came out that day and cheered us off the bus. We were starting to reconnect with the support.
"Ennis is a really tough place to go, the All-Ireland champions. That game was in the melting pot with five minutes to go, a couple of big scores from Eoghan Connolly and Seán Keneally off the bench and a few others got us over the line. But I think after that game we could see that the team was starting to open up, we knew if we got a result against Waterford, that would get us out of Munster."
Two-goal hero John McGrath was lost for words in trying to describe the level Tipperary found in the second half as they won the All-Ireland title. pic.twitter.com/AGMgX60ey7
— The Sunday Game (@TheSundayGame) July 20, 2025
Tipp have been described as the ultimate confidence county and their results in finals seem to back that up. When they win, they win big. Nine points to spare over Kilkenny in 2016 and 14 in '19. Some 15 over Cork yesterday, outscoring them 3-14 to 0-02 in the second half.
John McGrath scored 1-03 and 0-03 in the victories over the Cats and 2-02 yesterday, in addition to winning the penalty converted by McCarthy. Good going for an almost 31-year-old who didn't start a championship game for almost three years after rupturing his Achilles' tendon against Clare in 2022.
"There were a few years there it wasn't going for me but you don't just throw in the towel," he told RTÉ Sport. "I love playing this, I love being a part of this. You keep plugging away as long as you can.
"I was lucky enough we were still going with the club so I didn't see Clonakenny but by all accounts savage work was done. Even into January, February, training was so intense.
"We just really went back to basics. Built a real squad unity, a real belief as the year went on. Everyone was out on their feet there at the end but lads were still throwing everything in the way just to get over the line.
"That second half was 'Oh my God'.
"It's a long way we have come. We were long gone this time 12 months ago. It's hard to describe what exactly changed. It's not one single magic thing. The talent was always there, it was just about fine-tuning it and we have gone from strength to strength as the year has gone on."
"Can we a bit of pride back in the jersey?"
They were eliminated 14 months ago, to be precise.
"We're never too far away from the summit," insisted Breen. "But if you're off a yard, you can be the bottom in Munster.
"Our hurling is never an issue in Tipperary. Maybe the lungs and the legs, when we got them right this year, it did improve our game so much. But you could see it all come together in that second half today.
"We spoke about minding the ball, we spoke about running it and working it out well. That's the way we train all year, and last year, these are things we tried to do, but just didn't execute. So to fully execute in an All-Ireland final [is very pleasing].
"I think the goal before half-time really woke us up. We had been playing reasonably well. But that second half, we just attacked everything. And we came up trumps.
"This is really sweet. 2016 and '19, they were brilliant, but I'd never seen the colour and the excitement around the county [this week]. And the supporters again today were unbelievable."
Did they really believe they could turn things around so dramatically?
"When I met Liam you got a really good sense that there was going to be no stone left unturned to get the team back," says Forde.
"You need a bit of luck in these situations too. There was nobody talking about winning All-Irelands. Can we get this team [going] and get a bit of pride back in the jersey, get out of Munster and maybe reconnect with the Tipperary supporters?