At the end of a perfect season you wonder what rituals Tipp have left to share with each other. Unbeaten all year and now sucking in the rarest of air they keep the doors locked for an eternity. From the outside we glimpse the panel in a huge circle, arms locked round each other enslaved to intensity. Then comes the sound of wild cheering. Then some singing.
Inside Tommy Dunne sits in his Tipperary jersey with his hands wrapped around the top of his hurl. For a man who says he slept badly on Saturday night and woke at about seven thirty he is looking fair chipper. He is inhaling the moment, the implications of it, the symmetry of it.
Ten years since Tipp won a hurling All-Ireland. Forty years since a Toomevara man, Matt Hassett captained them to one. Growing up in a house with four brothers and a sister, where hurling was the lingua franca and a Tipp jersey was the holy grail, well this is a moment of unimaginable pleasure.
To have played badly and won an All-Ireland medal would have been sufficient unto the day. Dunne though has always borne responsibility well and from his generation of Tipp hurlers he will be the one remembered with the most affection and the most admi ration. As he said yesterday he has been eight years hurling with the county waiting for an afternoon like this. When it came around he could claim more credit than most for the flavour.
He scored five points, none of them mere decoration. He settled his team with the first score of the day after two minutes. He hit three 65s pure and true between the posts and the last of these arrived when it came to endgame, and we went clicking over into injury time. A huge score from a place ball putting Galway four points behind again. Every hurling head in the old ground knew it was over then.
"Personally", he says "this is the realisation of a dream. It means everything. You give your life to playing hurling. The ambition for everybody is to win an All-Ireland medal. I've been hurling with Tipp eight years and won nothing except a couple of national leagues. Winning a Munster championship and All-Ireland makes everything worthwhile, all the training, all the sacrifices. But Tommy Dunne doesn't linger long on things that are personal. This is the team's and this is Nicky's. It's not about Tommy. He talks only briefly about his scores, mentioning that there's been plenty of days when he's seen them drop right and left of the posts.
He concedes that midfield was plenty tough, "but it was fair and sporting, that should be said after all the publicity there has been about sendings off. I looked over to the Cusack Stand and saw everyone running in with their arms in the air and it dawned on me then that we were after winning an All- Ireland title. There've been times when I thought we'd never do it, but when Nicky took over he gave me a huge amount of belief. I just responded to him being manager. He's a fabulous manager, a fabulous person and he gives 110%. It's unbelievable for him. The bad days give ballast to the times like this when the lightness of it all could float you away. Dunne has known lean times and mean times.
"We were beaten in 1997 and it's so tough to get there again you want to grasp the opportunity. We were determined to play to our potential and not let the game go by. We were never so well prepared.Our injuries came good. We have gained an awful lot of experience over the years and we are taking a lot more scoring chances. Eight years with Tipp. There can seldom have been a tougher time to do that sort of stint. Dunne joined the ranks as the last of the old team went into decline and as Clare rose from nowhere with a chip on their collective shoulder about Tipp. While everyone went river dancing Tipp were at the drawing board.
"Several days I thought it was all going to pass me by, that there'd be no All-Ireland in my career. Several times today I thought it again. We have a great bond in this group. We fought for each other like hell.
We grew up travelling to Croke Park to see Nicky and Pat Fox and people play and see them being succesful. They finished and then it was up to the current generation and we failed for years. We felt like we were letting down the Tipperary supporters you know, even though we were trying as hard as we could, and even though we came up against some tremendous teams." You see why they made him captain and why when it came to the biggest day they could afford to rest so much of the burden on his shoulders. So little of what he says relates to him. It's about team. It's about together. His mind switches tracks. Brian O' Meara and Johnny Leahy.
"We knew we'd be without Johnny since the Clare game and Brian got suspended against Wexford. I've been hurling with Tipperary the same length of time as Brian has and I'm gutted for him. He'll understand though when I say that what happened to him d idn't weaken us, it made us stronger in wanting to win it for him." Tonight though it is Tommy Dunne who gets to carry the fabled cup into Liberty Square and home to Toomevara. He does so with a humility which runs in proportion with his greatness.
"Matt Hassett has been an inspirational figure in Toome for a long time and I'm delighted to bring the cup home." And in Toome, the week is just beginning. Next Sunday another Dunne, Triona who learned her game on the same grass as the boys, takes the field for Tipp in the All-Ireland camogie final. All those back garden dreams blossoming at last.
