Cummins recalls losing feeling that helps makes victory extra special

GAELIC GAMES:HE'S 17 years playing with Tipperary, across a record 62 championship appearances, and Brendan Cummins says no game took more out of him than Sunday's All-Ireland final win over Kilkenny. He's not just talking about the game itself, but also the immediate aftermath, the full realisation of winning, and the inevitable late-night celebrations.

“I really am wrecked,” he says. “It must be age, or something. I met a couple of the lads this morning, and they were still in their clothes, hadn’t gone to bed at all. After games now I really do get tired, after the adrenaline wears off, I suppose.”

It comes with being the elder statesman of the Tipperary team, although even at age 35, Cummins has no intention of surrendering his goalkeeping position just yet. He’s waited nine years to get that winning feeling back, and he certainly doesn’t want to leave it at that.

“You almost forget about what the feeling is,” he says, “and you’re always searching for it again. Then it arrives on you when the final whistle blows and you think, ‘this is it’. Brian Cody always talks about it, and I suppose that’s what has driven his team for the last four years, it’s that feeling when the final whistle goes. It’s the top of the world, and there’s no doubt it’s been three years for us, under Liam Sheedy, trying to get there, and just the sense of satisfaction is just amazing.

“And ours has been extra special, I suppose, after being hammered down below by Cork, really put to the sword, and after being beaten last year in the final as well.”

Cummins actually reckons the losing feeling somehow runs deeper than the winning feeling: “It’s true, I can recall the feeling last year, more than I’ll ever remember today, I can tell you. You nearly remember the losses more so than the victories, because you pile everything in, in the hope that it will be all right. And last year certainly here it was very emotional coming into the Burlington, having had so many Tipp supporters. Not so much having let them down, but not having the prize that everyone wanted.”

Like his manager Sheedy, Cummins always believed once Tipperary got back to Croke Park for the final they’d be very difficult to beat.

“We just had to get to the stage, where we got into that stadium. I knew that once we got in through the door of Croke Park, we were going to fly. Whether a team was going to be better than us on the day, fine, but we were going to perform, and that’s the main thing. And that’s the way it has worked out for us. Because we dominated for 30 minutes, and then Kilkenny scored 1-2, or something, in the last five minutes and they pegged us back.

“But I suppose the experience of last year kicked in, not to panic, to relax, keep doing your thing, keep playing the way you’re playing.”

So we’ll see him playing again next year? “Some day it’s going to stop, there’s no two ways about that. But I just take one year at a time. That’s the way I look at it now, and that’s the way it’s always been.”