Eamon O’Shea: ‘There are men in Tipperary who can carry this on’

Eamon O'Shea asks for a little time. He sits back in his chair and takes a slug out of a water bottle, holding it with both hands. He takes a few seconds to compose himself and casts about for an answer to a question about this being the end of his time in the Tipperary job.

Like so much else in his three years, what came out was heartfelt and beautiful.

Particular way

“I had my innings with Tipp. It was bloody . . . it was great. We did what we could. We tried to play the game in a particular way. There are men in Tipperary who can carry this on. I just feel that we gave it everything every time we went out. We tried to win.

“We didn’t always win. We were beaten by a point, beaten by three points. It doesn’t look great sometimes but we did our utmost to win these games.

“I said to the players, the belief I have in them and the belief I have that they can continue and go on and grow better when I’m not there is really strong. Somebody else will go on and do this better than I did. That’s all you can do.

“I’m old enough now to know that I had a real good shot at it. I had a real good shot and I really, really tried to play the game the way I wanted to play the game and the way they wanted to play the game.”

O'Shea was the width of a post away from an All-Ireland. He had the lead here going into injury-time. But, true to the way he has always preached, he can't – won't – base his life's worth on the quixotic spins and swerves of a leather ball. Frustrating "It is frustrating when you sit down and rationally look at it. But you can't allow it to dictate the way you think about the game and the way you think about the team or what you are involved in.

“To be involved in something like this, to feel alive on days like this, to feel coming into this game where we had a chance, we wanted to do something . . .

“When you look back on this, the disappointment of a point – you are just beaten, you are not defeated. They are young, they will have other games. So you can wallow in the point and you can say that we should have done this and done that.

“But I just think what they are involved in – and I know I have said this and people don’t believe me – but working with them on Tuesdays and Thursdays and the weekends, there is no greater thing in sport that I have been involved in.”