Sport

Cathal Barrett and Tipperary rise up to hurling's heights

Tipperary back Cathal Barrett. Picture by Seamus Loughran
Tipperary back Cathal Barrett. Picture by Seamus Loughran Tipperary back Cathal Barrett. Picture by Seamus Loughran

RISING to the occasion is something Tipperary defender Cathal Barrett constantly has to do and that approach helped his county hit the heights in last Sunday's All-Ireland final.

Tipp, eventually, comfortably beat a Kilkenny team seeking three in-a-row, but it was very tight for the first two-thirds of the game, until Barrett soared to make a telling contribution. Leaping to win the ball, the 23-year-old shrugged off an opponent before delivering a precise long ball up to John 'Bubbles' O'Dwyer. The Killenaule clubman cut inside Paul Murphy before lashing low to the net. The minimum margin between the sides had become a four-point gap, the biggest of the final so far and Tipperary never looked back.

Barrett was modest about his part in that crucial score, saying: "Ah, sure, whatever I did, Bubbles is class, as he shows every time he sets foot on the field. I just saw his run, pinged it and he did the rest."

He also paid tribute to referee Brian Gavin, who could easily have stopped the game before that goal but, instead, allowed play to develop: "We like the game to flow, I thought Brian did a tremendous job, he was very good for both sides," Barrett added.

"The advantage rule is a great rule because you do get pulled and dragged, so it's great to get that advantage. It's nice for backs to get advantage every now and then."

Although he had a height advantage over Richie Hogan for the initial challenge, Barrett generally gives up inches to opponents, as he did on his main marker, 6'1" Liam Blanchfield. However, he insisted: "I don't mind marking lads a lot bigger than me. Most lads are six foot something, I'm five 10 or 11, but I don't mind it, I'm used to it.

"Probably, one of my weaknesses is maybe in the air, but that doesn't bother me. It just means I have to prove myself again and again, which is fine."

Tipperary as a team had to prove themselves too and they did so with bells on last weekend, to Barrett's immense delight: "The amount of work that's been put in since before Christmas, the amount of blood, sweat and tears that we put in this year, it's very satisfying to come out with a win like that," he said.

"And to do it in the style we did it: there were plenty of doubters out there who said we couldn't get up to the intensity of Kilkenny, but I think we did more than that - they couldn't get up to our intensity."

Barrett was adamant Tipperary didn't doubt themselves, despite a series of defeats against the Cats in recent seasons: "We knew what we had in the dressing room, we set out our stall from the start and we just went at it as hard as we could.

"We knew we had to bring a big physical presence because Kilkenny are the masters of intensity - we knew what we had to bring and we thought we brought it. In fairness to Kilkenny, they've set the bar so massively high that everyone was reaching for it. Thank God, we just got up there."

Tipperary did much more than 'just' get up onto the winners' podium - the Premier county fully justified their nickname.