Michael Ryan’s men have learned from hardships handed out by Kilkenny

You could hear the whooping and singing from the winners' dressing room but as Michael Ryan and Seamus Callanan sat at the table sipping water and smiling, it was the measured way in which they absorbed this famous win which stood out.

When Tipperary won the Liam MacCarthy Cup in 2010, there was a sense that anything was possible. The five tough years which followed has seen a young team mature and grow together as athletes and people.

“This group of players has experienced enough pain,” Callanan acknowledged in an impressively honest assessment of the best and worst of being a Tipperary player over the past eight years.

"I heard [Kilkenny's] Richie Hogan last week talking and he said: I don't want to win last year's All-Ireland I want to win this year's. And I thought that is probably their mindset and why they are so successful. That when it's over it's over. Go and enjoy it for a few weeks but we will be back for more success."

Painful lessons

It was an instrumental observation because throughout the final there was a sense that this Tipperary team had taken the most painful lessons Kilkenny had inflicted on them and converted them into weapons they could use themselves.

In their relentless work rate and scores from turnovers and picking pockets and command of individual battles, they mirrored the best of Kilkenny. There might have been a time – maybe, say, after falling to Galway in last year’s semi-final – when people within Tipperary began to doubt whether this generation had the stuff to build on their 2010 triumph. Callanan never felt that doubt got through the door in Semple Stadium.

“Losing is hard to take. But there is never a second when one person in that Tipperary dressing room thought about throwing it all away and not wanting to go again. Everyone wanted redemption and a chance to fulfil our aspirations.

“We see the work that goes on every year and we are not going to throw it away or give up on something that is our dream. This is a special one. I am part of a panel that has been around and suffered a lot at the hands of Kilkenny. You can’t carry that as baggage. But we have been hurt enough. It is time for us to start inflicting the hurt on other teams.”

They have that potential and the sense now is that they have the momentum and collective keenness to make it happen.

Last season

Both Callanan and Ryan paid handsome tribute to the body of work left behind by Eamonn O’Shea, who stepped down at the end of last season. “Eamon? Look: Eamon and I are great friends and always will be,” Ryan said in tribute.

“He soldiered in Liam’s [Sheedy’s] regime for three years. When he came knocking in 2012 to put a squad together I had no hesitation coming on board. We were all devastated when we didn’t achieve something. Eamon remains a great friend to our group. I would just say that Eamon’s influence on this group was seen out there today. He would have been thrilled with that work rate and the skill on show out there: that is straight out of the Eamon O’Shea book on hurling.”

With this win it suddenly looks rosy again for Tipperary.Their leading players are entering their prime years and will be hungry for more success. Ryan’s tempered view of the current phase of hurling has clearly been crucial to this perfect summer.

It was well flagged that he would succeed O’Shea, and he took up the post with question marks over whether this team could emulate its 2010 form.

“It was probably a bit unusual but it was very well intentioned,” he said of the decision to announce him early as successor.

“Eamon was sure he wasn’t going ahead beyond [last season]. And in every county, particularly Tipp, speculation can run riot. And the other reason is that we were on the right path. We wanted continuity. So it has worked out.

“This wasn’t created this year. This was born through the last five years when we weren’t successful but were working very hard. I think we had four or five debutants out there today. Those guys have just opened up a whole new chapter for themselves, and they are going to relish coming back to try and do something in 2017.”

It sounded like a promise they intend on keeping. It will be bad news for everyone if Tipperary have taken a leaf out of the Kilkenny handbook on dealing with success – including, perhaps, Kilkenny.