'There's a lot of drive in them' - The North Tipperary attacking stars pointing the way

The 42

2 days ago

TWELVE YEARS APART and history repeated itself in a hurling pocket of north Tipperary.
In the spring of 2012, Donach O'Donnell looked after a Nenagh CBS team inspired by the attacking talents of Jason Forde from Silvermines.
In the spring of 2024, O'Donnell guided another school side that hinged on the freescoring brilliance of Darragh McCarthy from Toomevara.
The potential in both was glaringly obvious in those school days. Higher hurling stages beckoned. Today they'll link up together with Tipperary one game away from an All-Ireland final place.
'Jason and Darragh were very similar really. Both really good young players coming through, both free takers, both captains, both (on) successful teams. There's a lot of comparisons there.
'There's a lot of drive in them. First hand from seeing Darragh and Jason, they drove the standards and pushed players.
'Darragh had an instinct for it. A session would be going a little bit flat and you're just about to pull them in, and Darragh would pull them in.
'He'd say, 'Lads we need to pick it up from here.'
'Which was just brilliant to see and having that insight into the way the players think.'
They demanded plenty from their team-mates but backed it up on the pitch.
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In 2012 Forde steered Nenagh CBS to the Harty Cup final. In their semi-final replay against Ardscoil Rís, who included Cian Lynch and William O'Donoghue in their ranks, Forde scored 1-10 out of his team's 1-11 tally.
When they were in trouble late on, he bailed them out by scoring 1-1 to win by a point. They lost the subsequent decider but regrouped to win the All-Ireland competition, Forde firing 2-2 against Kilkenny CBS as they grasped silverware.
In 2024 McCarthy pointed the way as Nenagh CBS made a historic breakthrough, 0-13 in the semi-final succes over Charleville CBS, 0-7 in the final victory over Ardscoil Rís.
A first Harty Cup title. Dreamland stuff.
The scoring totals they compiled were less by accident and more by design. Forde was Tipperary's regular free-taker for years, now McCarthy has assumed that responsibility.
Both have spent years relentlessly honing their craft. In the wake of Tipperary's quarter-final victory a fortnight ago, Forde remarked that McCarthy would spend every waking hour hurling if he could, such is his fanatical devotion to the game.
'I'd arguments with Darragh over how much training he was doing,' recalls O'Donnell.
'I had to stop him. I had to actually physically remove him nearly from the pitch. But both of them were constantly in the field. I remember (with) Jason, I got a phone call from one of the coaches the night before we played the semi-final, that Jason was going to take frees with his left hand, not his right, so just in case we were wondering what's happening. He was that comfortable off both hands, decided he was shooting better off his left.'
In between Forde and McCarthy's schooln days, came Jake Morris. His class of 2017 contested a Harty Cup semi-final, Nenagh losing out to a Templemore side that featured Andrew Ormond and Brian McGrath.
O'Donnell was not directly involved coaching that team but witnessed enough of their games to gauge the ability Morris progressed. The swiftness of the graduation to play senior for Tipperary in 2018 and win an All-Ireland medal in 2019 surprised no one.
'Jake was very influential.. I wasn't coaching him at the time, but they used to move him from centre forward to centre back, because he had that much influence on a game, depending on who were playing or sometimes during the game they would do it (at) half-time, so he had a big influence on on that team.'
That influence has extended to the Tipperary senior ranks. Morris was pegged as an attacker who liked to be close to goal but has this year thrived in a deeper capacity.
'He's a really, really good athlete,' says O'Donnell.
'He's extremely strong and quick, his turn of pace, particularly. He's an ability to kind of glide and then just take off in a couple of steps, and again in schools, he was always around the middle looking for balls and that's where he played mostly. He ended up making it with Tipp inside first of all, but outside suits him better definitely.'
Supplying half of the Tipperary starting attack elevates this season for those with Nenagh CBS connections.
The links runs deeper. Craig Morgan is another past student, the Kilruane MacDonaghs clubman has overcome a cruciate injury to nail down a starting spot. Seanie Kenneally has impacted off the bench, netting a vital goal last year against Waterford and clipping a point against Clare this year, the Moneygall man has returned to his alma mater to coach hurling teams in recent times. Michael Corcoran from Silvermines is also on the panel and while Sam O'Farrell went to Glenstal Abbey, he is another Nenagh local.
In an area that is a hotbed for the game, these ties strengthen the support for Tipperary and the school game that feeds into it.
'It's hugely important. The Harty is a big deal to the kids, it's very important to them as it is to everyone around. Last year we made the breakthrough to win the Harty which is again just a huge thing for the whole community really, the whole school and the whole surrounding area.'
Tipperary's hurling fortunes have declined since the highs of three All-Irelands from 2010-19 and regular attendees in Croke Park.
Their resurgence has been underpinned by signs of underage promise, three All-Ireland wins across minor and U20 in the last four seasons.
The Harty Cup has been a vital stepping stone towards that, the Cashel, Nenagh, and Thurles flagship sides taking the last three crowns.
'It has definitely improved in the preparation stakes, it's effectively an inter-county setup,' says O'Donnell
'I've been involved in inter-county setups. We're not doing anything different to them, apart from the volume maybe.
'Early on you've a lot of club games so you don't have that much time with the players, but once you get out of the group stages, you have your prep and organisation sessions and your video analysis and your physio and all that stuff is like intercounty, and I think most teams are like that.
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'If you had two or three county minors, you were doing really well at U18 level, whereas now you need 3 or 4 U20s on your (school) team. Most of the players are with those three teams have been involved in the county U20s. That's really good for the for the county.'
With school hurling days behind them, they have flourished. Forde and Morris remain central components of the Tipperary cause, having battled through recent lean years. McCarthy has become a breakout star and even when hit with a setback like his early red card against Cork, has shown the resilience to recover.
That demonstration of character was something O'Donnell was always aware of.
'He wasn't fully fit playing with us in the last couple of games (last year).
'He was carrying a groin strain and again was just relentless in his will to play and to train and again we had to limit it because he wasn't going to.
'His first year on the (school Harty) panel he was very small physically, and we brought him on really for experience for the following year, but he ended up starting.
'He's very quick to learn and anything you said to him he soaked it in straight away, and he's a real ability to work.
'Often times in Harty he'd be double marked or he'd be under a lot of pressure and he'd go make a 30, 40 yard run and hit someone, contact and win the ball and pass it off to someone else. He's that type of player, that he wanted to stay involved.'
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