In fairness to Kelly, he got two YHOTY and probably was close to being in conversation for 01 award. If there were three nominees that year, I’d say he may have got one.
Up until 08/09, you couldn’t consider any Tipp player for HOTY. Seamie’s four year of nominations had Tipp in the final three of those (winning two and going to a replay on the other) and a point away from a final the other year
It must be said though that Kelly was probably the best Underage player ever along with Joe Canning.
He’d have scored a point standing on his head that day. Some man to strike the ball running away from goal.
Based solely on underage then its Ger farragher (minor anyway) .
Kelly was better than Callanan for me. Better stickman could make something from nothing. Callanan did that against us in 2015 for sure, but most other days needed more good ball in front of him. Both top class of course. Streets ahead of Lar.
Were Tipp’s problems in the '03-'07 era not more to do with management than talent? They seemed to take a big drop immediately when English departed and it wasn’t until Sheedy arrived that they picked up but they improved pretty much instantly. Between '03 and '07 they had two managers who weren’t inter-county level and a past it Babs.
I get that but Tipp still made 3x All Ireland Finals in a row when Kelly was 27-29 too.
People just had it in their heads from 2006 that we’d never see a better forward for Tipp than Kelly again no matter what but i think we did.
Andrew o Shaughnessy was class.
Didn’t he get three lads sent off against askeaton @Julio_Geordio @TreatyStones if I recall correctly.
It was a bit from column A and column B I would say.
Sheedy had generational talents coming on stream from the 06/07 minors. There was also a lot of poor organisation prior to him.
Then again, I’m not sure if the players were really there. Some amount of backs were converted into forwards there for a few years (Dimi Fitz, John Devane, Sheedy tried Hugh Maloney up there) and I think we also lacked fitness. You’d talented forwards like Eugene O’Neill and Liam Cahill whose careers fizzled out. We even had to bring in Denis Byrne FFS sake.
A few of the key players from 2001 struggled with injuries in the subsequent years (Lar, Philip Maher) whereas others were coming towards the latter end of their careers (Tommy Dunne, for example)
Jimmy Doyle?
I think good management solves a lot of those problems. Sheedy had Tipp motoring before the Mahers and Noel McGrath arrived.
Callanan would have been minor in 2006 but I don’t see him down on the scorers list in the final, was he injured? I thought when he came on the scene in 2008 he was going to be one of the greatest hurlers ever, then by 2011 I thought he was genuinely done for good at inter-county level. It’s hard to describe how bad he was against Kilkenny in that year’s final, he looked like a player having a mental breakdown, was he hauled off at half time having barely pucked a ball?
He was taken off at half time alright for Pa Bourke. 2012 and 13 were very patchy years for him as well. Remember he didn’t start the 2010 final but came on as a sub and slotted over two lovely points
Callanan scored the winning point off the bench in the 2006 Minor Semi Final against Kilkenny.
His display v Clare in the 2008 Munster U21 Final in Ennis was as good as you’d see.
In 2011, he was in HOTY form when Tipp were flying in Munster before it all fizzled out in Croke Park.
I think looking back, we got fixated with centre forward and who could play there. The amount of backs thrown up centre forward.
03 we lost a league final to KK then Clare ran over us. Recovered and hammered by KK in the AlSF.
04 unlucky to lose to Waterford below in Cork. Although they were prob a better team than us. Then Cork bet us in Killarney
05 - Drew with Limerick, beat them in the replay after Evan Sweeney took 47 steps, beat Clare on a rotten day in Limerick. Lost to Cork in the MF. Galway bet us in the QF, a game where we played well but then faded away and they got a run on us. Hughie Maloney being fucked out of the way by Hayes.
06 We’ve mentioned a bit. I was in the states for the Quarter final so missed it but again I remember the father saying it was a poor second half from us.
07 was the end of Babs. The trilogy v Limerick, beating cork in Thurles, losing to Wexford.
Luck, injuries, fitness and ultimately square pegs in round holes. All through it though Kelly was unplayable except for 07 when he was carrying an injury.
His goal in the 08 Munster Final and subsequent celebration drove a few lads cracked.
I lost my glasses on the terrace that day but I think it was for JO’B’s goal.
They definitely had a shit team anyway. Starting the likes of Redser O’Grady, Big Darragh Egan and Willie Ryan in the forwards.
They won the All-Ireland in '01 and were very close to Kilkenny in '02. Didn’t Redser O’Grady completely destroy Kilkenny in a league game in Nowlan Park in 2003? Good managers tend to make good players. Bad managers tend to make potentially good players bad players.
My mental image of Michael Doyle is of him almost falling over himself handpassing a goal from 1 yard against Cork in 1987. That’s my mental image of him as manager too.
My last mental images of Ken Hogan are of him letting an uncharacteristically harmless shot by John Fitzgibbon squirm under him in 1991 and missing a simple pick up and letting the ball trickle into his net against Galway in 1993. These are my mental images of him as Tipperary manager.
My mental images of Babs Keating as Tipperary manager in 2006-07 are of the 1993 version of Brian Clough entering the Tipperary dressing room and telling the players “I’d ask you to take all your medals and throw them in the bin - if any of you had any medals, but yas don’t. because yas are all fuckin’ useless.”
If you take one isolated league performance, every hurler in the country is a world-beater
There’s the true benchmark of greatness
For some it’s an all Ireland senior Final
Others a Wexford u13c championship 