Jackie Tyrrell is 31. Neither old nor young, in hurling or life. On the cusp of championship season number 12, he was brought into the Nowlan Park fold by Brian Cody way back in 2003. By 2006 he was captain, by 2012 he had six Celtic Crosses. By now you know of him if you know hurling at all.
Watching him and Kilkenny, ultimately, fail last summer was captivating. The demise of champions always is because they don’t know how to quit.
He was half lame in the two Dublin games, as Kilkenny clung to the Leinster championship ridge before Dotsy O’Callaghan stamped on their fingers. They fell, as the hurling gods would have it, towards a very familiar rectangle of grass. Tipperary were waiting to catch them.
A perfect storm on a scorching day. You wonder if Jackie Tyrrell has thought much about that evening in Kilkenny city. “I just close my eyes and smile. It was a cauldron, everything you wanted, and the heat made it even more intense.
“I remember we got there and went for a few pucks up in the corner where there was a small shade. Our dietician came in and said we were losing too much fluid. It was that hot.
“The game, the day, had absolutely everything. I’ll never forget it as long as I live. Now if we had of lost it I wouldn’t be talking about it. What was it, twenty or so thousand? It felt like 90,000 were at it.
“All that week you could feel it building.”
In the village, in the city, around the county. All of them - Kilkenny, Cody, Tyrrell – had their necks on the block.
"The draw was only made on the Sunday night but on the Monday, on the border in Urlingford some Tipperary lads came in and put a cardboard sign on the wall. It had a coffin with a Kilkenny lad in the jersey being put into it. Rest in Peace, it said. It was brilliant. Beauty of the GAA. You can't beat it."
Greatest fear
To be flayed by Tipperary in Nowlan Park, in championship, was their greatest fear. "People were genuinely scared. Of all the teams to knock you out. It all built up. Then the heat, it was a magnificent occasion. I'll never forget it."
That victory filled them with belief. They seemed themselves again (invincible) when Waterford dragged matters into extra-time at Semple Stadium seven days later.
Fifteen days on and it was back to Thurles to devour a young Cork team. But Henry walked early and everything floundered. Losing to Cork was not as bad as what happened when the painkiller wore off and Kilkenny were forced to watch the so-called greatest championship of our time draw to its natural and beautiful conclusion. Without them.
“God we were disappointed and gutted (after Cork) but it was worse the following weeks watching the semi-final and final. That drove it home that, Jesus, we are actually gone.
"It was really hard to watch the All-Ireland final. For me anyway. I suppose you have been there so many times before and know the buzz. But now you don't have that buzz."
Numb.
“Ah no. You can tap into that, use it to motivate you. But it can’t be all about that. You can’t be successful because of the fear of failure. You have to be doing it for the right reason.”
The battle of the mind, sports psychology, has become his main well of inspiration and motivation. "For me it is about getting the best out of myself. The last drop. People would look at your age profile and think you should be coming down the way, but I am determined to keep that going as long as I can."
Sponsor's function
By the way, yesterday he was talking from the Hogan stand, at a sponsor's function, overlooking the pitch. It felt awfully like summer.
“Just getting my body right and my mind too, I do that on my own,” he continued.
“I learned about it in 2008 and started tapping into it.”
Enda McNulty, the former Armagh footballer, and his work with the Leinster and Ireland rugby teams inevitably comes up. Waterford’s Shane O’Sullivan as well.
“I was speaking to Shane on the Notre Dame trip. He was telling me the theories behind it.
“Ah, it’s huge. You can have all the skill or the best physique in the world and if your head isn’t in the right place, if you have worries and doubts . . .”
You can’t survive as an inter-county player?
“You can probably survive at a decent club level but inter-county? No. You just wouldn’t. The game is so fast. If doubts and fears start creeping in going for a ball you’ll be found out.”
Especially if a corner back like Tyrrell smells that fear. And have no doubt about it, he wouldn’t be long seizing an opponent up.
Páidi Ó Sé never spoke to the man he shadowed. Does he, having marked the best hurlers of the last 12 years, adopt a similar approach?
“I take it off the cuff. Go out and play. If a lad wants to say something let him say it. If he wants to hurl the ball . . . It’s case by case really.”
A new case comes Sunday at the Gaelic grounds. Maybe Joe Canning or Damien Hayes.
“A lot of it is instinct, like hurling itself. You think on your feet. Whatever happens happens.”
Tyrrell has spoken about how Cork dictated the terms of engagement in Thurles last summer, and how Shefflin’s dismissal wasn’t why they lost. It was because they were dominated in so many individual battles. “I still know that I have it in me. If I had any doubts I wouldn’t have gone back.”
We seek elaboration about “it”, in layman’s terms if any exist. “Ah, it’s right across the board. It’s body language to the corner forward. It’s the psychological thing. The first ball. The second ball. When he thinks he’s on top, do something.
“It’s war for 70 minutes . . . and we love it.”
Tyrrell was speaking at the launch of Opel Kit for Clubs 2014 – for further details log on to opelkitforclubs.com.
