6 days ago
The Tipperary club corner-forward on track for a hurling All-Star at corner-back
A week before the beginning of his debut season with Tipperary, Robert Doyle lined out at left half-forward on the TUS Midwest side that drew their Fitzgibbon Cup opener. Barring a difficult final Sunday, this debut inter-county season will conclude with All-Star corner-back selection.
In last summer's local Tipp championship, Doyle lined out at corner-forward for Clonoulty-Rossmore, even further up the field again than he was for TUS Midwest in subsequent months.
In their final group outing, and needing a result against Templederry Kenyons to avoid the relegation play-offs, Doyle struck 2-1 to top-score from play and steer Clonoulty clear of any trapdoor argument.
But despite a club campaign that included three goals in three outings, the Tipp management didn't want him breaking lines and pilfering flags, they wanted him putting the brakes on the game's most revered forwards.
Management's first job, mind, was to get him on board.
Full-back for the Tipp U20s in 2023, Doyle had turned down the 2024 invitation to graduate straight into the senior set-up.
'Somebody asked me after the All-Ireland semi-final did we have a bit of a job to get him to come in, as if he wanted to be guaranteed a spot! Twas anything but that,' Tipp selector Declan Laffan clarified at the county's All-Ireland final press day.
'I won't say he needed a little bit of poking to get him on board this year. I'd be telling lies to say he didn't. It was whatever he wanted to do in his own life at the time and obviously we had spoken to him the year before, but he's in now and he's hugely important to the group and he's really delivering.'
Laffan reckons Doyle's versatility may have come against him at times in the recent past. Case in point was his complete lack of defensive selection and defensive exposure between the conclusion of his Tipp U20 career in April 2023 and his senior debut 20 months later.
'With Robert, we always viewed him as a defender, and obviously when you're involved in this end of things, you're watching everything, inter-county, minor, U20, whatever's on, you're aware of it.'
His debut was his half-time introduction, replacing corner-back Michael Corcoran, in the facile opening round League win over Galway. Tipperary have played 13 games since. The 22-year-old debutant has started all 13. And outside of his half-time withdrawal in the non-event that was their All-Ireland preliminary quarter-final against Laois, he's finished the other 12.
Tipperary's Robert Doyle in action against Eoin Cody of Kilkenny in the All-Ireland SHC semi-final. Pic: ©INPHO/James Crombie
If minutes clocked aren't enough of an indicator of the esteem management hold him in, look at the jobs he's been detailed on the run to the decider.
On the Saturday evening in Ennis when winless Tipperary's championship involvement hung by a thread, the brief of the debutant was to shadow and stifle the 2024 All-Ireland final man of the match.
No biggie, sure.
Tony Kelly had seven first-half possessions and involvement in 1-2. Doyle, though, had four possessions, including the assist for Tipperary's third goal and secondary assist for their fourth.
The first half, so, to the blue corner. And while Kelly had two second-half assists, won a converted free, and won a penalty he converted himself, Liam Sheedy would remark on the Irish Examiner's Dalo's Hurling Show that the Tipp No.2 'more or less' put Kelly 'to sleep'.
A week later he issued a stronger anesthetic to Dessie Hutchinson. The Waterford captain managed one point in total. It was also the only shot at the target he managed off Doyle.
Hutchinson went into the game boasting a 3-16 tally against Tipp across the four previous summer clashes. Doyle limited the corner-forward to one white flag and three possessions in the 65 minutes before he was whipped.
'For a young lad who played up front with Clonoulty, what management have done with him is off the charts,' Sheedy added.
Kilkenny's Eoin Cody was another to receive short shrift last time out. Of course, Doyle's outstanding piece of semi-final interruption was to block on the goalline John Donnelly's injury-time green flag attempt.
Tomorrow, he'll renew acquaintances with Alan Connolly. They've already danced this year. Connolly thrives in the company of the blue and gold. Five goals during the last three times he's shared a field with the Premier.
Doyle wasn't present for the May afternoon last year when the Rockies kid raided Thurles for a championship hat-trick. He was instead preparing for a club championship where he intended to do similar.
On Sunday, his latest job is to render ineffective a returned-to-form Connolly.
'He's a real quiet chap, he's not a guy that'll stick out within the group. I won't say you'll have to go looking for him but you're not going to hear him shouting around the place,' Laffan continued.
'He quietly goes about his business and look, he's a superb player and has done a huge job for us this year. We are really seeing now the true value of what he is capable of.'
