Sporting Advent Calendar #6: Callanan shines on special day in Croke Park

It’s hard to imagine how Seamus Callanan felt after this summer’s championship semi-final defeat to Galway.

Any defeat is hard to swallow, not to mention a season-ending one - this Tipperary team had come up short once more. The Drom-Inch attacker did all he could though, he scored 3-9 himself, enough to win most games - but not this one.

He had 1-1 slotted inside the first four minutes - but few would have anticipated a further 10 scores coming from his hurl. But that’s exactly what happened, scores from play, frees, a real exhibition of finishing.

Callanan has been in incredible form, particularly over the past two years, and this game epitomised how important the two-time All Star has become to the Premier County.

Galway persisted with young Padraig Mannion marking Tipperary’s on fire talisman, but he never got to grips with his opponent. And so a battle ensued between Callanan and the Tribesmen - the number 14 accounting for three quarters of his team’s overall tally of 3-16 as they were unable to find a way to limit his impact.

Yet Galway’s 17 year pursuit of a fifth McCarthy Cup triumph had rarely conjured a more complete performance over the 70 minutes than this.

The usual purple matches were extended as they answered everything that Callanan and Tipperary threw at them, edging things despite being outscored three goals to nil. Leaving the Hurler of the Year nominee’s efforts somehow in vain.

It was a special day in Croke Park for other reasons too, another fantastic hurling spectacle, and the return of Tipperary’s Noel McGrath from the testicular cancer which had ruled him out of the championship prior to that.

The former All Star came on to a standing ovation and his late point very nearly made for a fairytale ending. But it wasn’t to be, for him, Callanan or Tipperary - this day was Galway’s.