MAYBE IT WAS no harm that the Fitzgibbon Cup final played out to a backdrop of empty seats at Croke Park last Friday night.
Only a few hundred turned up to watch a galactico encrusted University of Limerick side post 4-31 – the largest tally in a Fitzgibbon decider in well over 100 years – and even fewer of them were there to support opponents Mary I.
So, like being pulled back into the Covid championship of 2020, you could hear a pin drop every time Darragh McCarthy stepped up to address a free for UL.
Seven times it happened in all.
And he slotted the lot.
But McCarthy is sharp enough to know that when he steps back into the arena this Saturday night, surrounded by Limerick men again as he will line out for Tipperary against the Shannonsiders, there’s a decent chance that a section of supporters will be cynical enough to rain boos down on him again.
As he realised the previous weekend against Cork at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, it seems to have become a thing now. And not a particularly edifying thing.
McCarthy’s routine, where he shapes up as if to begin his lift-and-strike, before stepping away and tossing up a piece of grass to confirm the wind direction, before squaring back up to the ball again and completing his lift-and-strike, is a little jarring and long-winded.
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But that’s the way he’s always done it and if it works for him, as it clearly does – McCarthy has played 15 league and championship games so far for Tipperary, scoring 4-101, with 3-86 from placed balls – then more power to him.
It would be naive to think that the barracking will stop though, particularly when the very nature of what McCarthy is doing, taking anything up to 25 seconds to complete his routine, leaves a chasm of silence just waiting to be filled.
After the Fitzgibbon decider, the rare treat of a pitch-side interview was afforded to non-broadcast media. McCarthy, beaming broadly, stopped to chat. He was asked about the booing by Cork fans and claimed that it barely registered with him.
Darragh McCarthy celebrates UL's Fitzgibbon Cup victory with Oisin O'Donoghue. Tom O’Hanlon / INPHO
Tom O’Hanlon / INPHO / INPHO
“I don’t mind any of it,” said the reigning Young Hurler of the Year.
“I just try and block it out if I can and tip away at the frees. That’s all you can do. There’s no point in changing. People can say things, I genuinely don’t mind. They can say what they say. I’ll stick to it anyway.”
It’s the hurling equivalent of a top golfer being booed for standing too long over the ball, or for slow play. Pádraig Harrington got it for years but was always strong enough to block it out. Dubliner Colin Byrne, who caddied for a host of top players including Retief Goosen, Ernie Els and Louis Oosthuizen, used to tell them all before playing competitively with Harrington to be ready for a long day. Chances are a tournament official would even put the entire group ‘on the clock’ for slow play.
Padraig Harrington. Tom Maher / INPHO
Tom Maher / INPHO / INPHO
“It’s not a criticism, it’s just the way he is,” said Byrne of Harrington. “He’s a detailed, detailed person. There isn’t a molecule that is left unexamined before he pulls the trigger on a shot.”
McCarthy appears to be of that same granite will, entering into a world all of his own, just like three-time major winner Harrington, before eventually striking the sliotar.
“It comes down to jealousy – the kid’s good,” argued former Antrim free-taker Liam Watson on the Smaller Fish podcast.
“If you look at the Cork supporters all booing him, and he’s fit to put it between the posts, that’s a delight. That’s what you love doing, just shutting people up.”
Watson’s take is that they’re ‘trying to take the good out of the kid’. But what if they succeed, or if they even chip away at the granite facade just enough to sow a little doubt in the youngster’s mind before he lifts and strikes?
Ian Keatley opened up in 2017 about the impact that supporters booing him had on his ability to take place kicks for the Munster rugby team.
Ian Keatley kicks a penalty for Munster in 2017. Dan Sheridan / INPHO
Dan Sheridan / INPHO / INPHO
“I remember setting up kicks, and it was like I’d never seen this before,” he said of one period after he’d been booed in a game.
“I’d been practising all week, and it had been going well. Then in a game I’m thinking, ‘This doesn’t look familiar’. It was so strange, no matter what I was doing, it wasn’t working.”
McCarthy’s case is a little different. Nobody was booing him for underperformance for starters, quite the opposite in fact. And, so far, his routine has remained absolutely bulletproof, his efficiency through the roof.
The message from those who have spoken about it publicly since the Cork game is that McCarthy needs to simply keep doing what he’s doing.
“Darragh is well capable of putting that to the back of his mind,” insisted Tipp manager Liam Cahill immediately after the game. “It’s going to be something similar I suppose come April or May, come the Munster championship when the stadium is full as well.”
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The Toomevara man himself explained back in 2024, in an interview with Tipp FM’s Paul Carroll, where his intriguing routine came from.
“My brother actually started it off,” said McCarthy. “He was U-14, and I was only eight or nine at the time. I sort of copied it off him. I’ll give him the credit for that. There’s no point in changing it now at this stage. I’ve been very used to that since U-14, U-12 even.”
No doubt McCarthy’s routine will be put to the test again in Thurles on Saturday evening when he lines up in opposition to a number of his Fitzgibbon Cup winning team-mates.
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Tipp star's granite will is key as he enters freetaking world all of his own
MAYBE IT WAS no harm that the Fitzgibbon Cup final played out to a backdrop of empty seats at Croke Park last Friday night.
Only a few hundred turned up to watch a galactico encrusted University of Limerick side post 4-31 – the largest tally in a Fitzgibbon decider in well over 100 years – and even fewer of them were there to support opponents Mary I.
So, like being pulled back into the Covid championship of 2020, you could hear a pin drop every time Darragh McCarthy stepped up to address a free for UL.
Seven times it happened in all.
And he slotted the lot.
But McCarthy is sharp enough to know that when he steps back into the arena this Saturday night, surrounded by Limerick men again as he will line out for Tipperary against the Shannonsiders, there’s a decent chance that a section of supporters will be cynical enough to rain boos down on him again.
As he realised the previous weekend against Cork at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, it seems to have become a thing now. And not a particularly edifying thing.
McCarthy’s routine, where he shapes up as if to begin his lift-and-strike, before stepping away and tossing up a piece of grass to confirm the wind direction, before squaring back up to the ball again and completing his lift-and-strike, is a little jarring and long-winded.
But that’s the way he’s always done it and if it works for him, as it clearly does – McCarthy has played 15 league and championship games so far for Tipperary, scoring 4-101, with 3-86 from placed balls – then more power to him.
It would be naive to think that the barracking will stop though, particularly when the very nature of what McCarthy is doing, taking anything up to 25 seconds to complete his routine, leaves a chasm of silence just waiting to be filled.
After the Fitzgibbon decider, the rare treat of a pitch-side interview was afforded to non-broadcast media. McCarthy, beaming broadly, stopped to chat. He was asked about the booing by Cork fans and claimed that it barely registered with him.
“I don’t mind any of it,” said the reigning Young Hurler of the Year.
“I just try and block it out if I can and tip away at the frees. That’s all you can do. There’s no point in changing. People can say things, I genuinely don’t mind. They can say what they say. I’ll stick to it anyway.”
It’s the hurling equivalent of a top golfer being booed for standing too long over the ball, or for slow play. Pádraig Harrington got it for years but was always strong enough to block it out. Dubliner Colin Byrne, who caddied for a host of top players including Retief Goosen, Ernie Els and Louis Oosthuizen, used to tell them all before playing competitively with Harrington to be ready for a long day. Chances are a tournament official would even put the entire group ‘on the clock’ for slow play.
“It’s not a criticism, it’s just the way he is,” said Byrne of Harrington. “He’s a detailed, detailed person. There isn’t a molecule that is left unexamined before he pulls the trigger on a shot.”
McCarthy appears to be of that same granite will, entering into a world all of his own, just like three-time major winner Harrington, before eventually striking the sliotar.
“It comes down to jealousy – the kid’s good,” argued former Antrim free-taker Liam Watson on the Smaller Fish podcast.
“If you look at the Cork supporters all booing him, and he’s fit to put it between the posts, that’s a delight. That’s what you love doing, just shutting people up.”
Watson’s take is that they’re ‘trying to take the good out of the kid’. But what if they succeed, or if they even chip away at the granite facade just enough to sow a little doubt in the youngster’s mind before he lifts and strikes?
Ian Keatley opened up in 2017 about the impact that supporters booing him had on his ability to take place kicks for the Munster rugby team.
“I remember setting up kicks, and it was like I’d never seen this before,” he said of one period after he’d been booed in a game.
“I’d been practising all week, and it had been going well. Then in a game I’m thinking, ‘This doesn’t look familiar’. It was so strange, no matter what I was doing, it wasn’t working.”
McCarthy’s case is a little different. Nobody was booing him for underperformance for starters, quite the opposite in fact. And, so far, his routine has remained absolutely bulletproof, his efficiency through the roof.
The message from those who have spoken about it publicly since the Cork game is that McCarthy needs to simply keep doing what he’s doing.
“Darragh is well capable of putting that to the back of his mind,” insisted Tipp manager Liam Cahill immediately after the game. “It’s going to be something similar I suppose come April or May, come the Munster championship when the stadium is full as well.”
The Toomevara man himself explained back in 2024, in an interview with Tipp FM’s Paul Carroll, where his intriguing routine came from.
“My brother actually started it off,” said McCarthy. “He was U-14, and I was only eight or nine at the time. I sort of copied it off him. I’ll give him the credit for that. There’s no point in changing it now at this stage. I’ve been very used to that since U-14, U-12 even.”
No doubt McCarthy’s routine will be put to the test again in Thurles on Saturday evening when he lines up in opposition to a number of his Fitzgibbon Cup winning team-mates.
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Darragh McCarthy GAA Hurling Tipperary