WHEN JASON RABBITTE raced through for the first of his two goals in last year’s Connacht Post-Primary Schools Senior A hurling final win, we were immediately reminded of his father, Joe.
And not because of the chip-off-the-old-block feel about the sumptuous, feathered touch that allowed Jason to gather in Ciarán Leen’s pass to open up the space in front of him.
Rather, and perhaps a little immaturely, it was because with Brendan Fox ahead of the Presentation College, Athenry forward in goals for Coláiste Bhaile Chláir, we were drawn back to that famous piece of Micheál Ó Mhuircheartaigh commentary from the early 1990s.
“Pat Fox has it on his hurl and is motoring well now, but here comes Joe Rabbitte hot on his tail – I’ve seen it all now, a Rabbitte chasing a Fox around Croke Park,” said O Mhuircheartaigh, on RTÉ Radio commentary for the 1993 All-Ireland semi final between Galway and Tipperary.
Joe Rabbitte in action for the Galway hurlers. �INPHO
�INPHO
Well over three decades on, Tipp happen to be the hunted again and Galway just happen to have a talented young Rabbitte in their forward line again. Who knows, Jason might even do what his All-Star father Joe never managed to do in 12 years as a Galway senior – win an All-Ireland.
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That’s a good bit down the road, of course, but the younger Rabbitte has certainly enjoyed a brilliant start to life as a senior county player.
Micheál Donoghue even seems to be building a crucial aspect of the team’s development, their ability to deliver long ball to the inside forwards, and to retain it there, around the towering Athenry teenager.
Ronan Glennon’s goal against Waterford last weekend was a case in point. Padraic Mannion arrowed a pass from midfield down into the number 13 zone, on the outside of Rabbitte, who had the power initially to win the ball ahead of Mark Fitzgerald, and then the game intelligence to instantly roll away from his man and to play in Glennon. When they talk about some players ‘seeing the picture’ well before the move plays out, this is what they mean.
It’s no great surprise that Rabbitte has adapted so quickly to senior activity, starting all four of Galway’s league games so far this year and returning six points, with plenty more created.
Jason Rabbitte in action for Galway against Tipperary. James Lawlor / INPHO
James Lawlor / INPHO / INPHO
He has been tracked for years as a school and county underage talent, and he trained with the Galway seniors last year. On Wednesday night, he lined out for ATU Galway in the Fresher 1 hurling final, scoring and impressing but coming up just shy against a talented UL team.
Rabbitte, as it happens, is an Entrance Scholarship Award recipient at ATU Galway, one of eight students rewarded for achieving at least 550 points in their Leaving Cert.
On the pitch, he has a similar running gait to his father, long-legged and powerful, and capable of chewing up the yards in double quick time. He even wears the same distinctive protective glove on his hand, just like Joe.
“The way he carries himself, it’s just a carbon copy of his father,” remarked pundit and former Tipperary player Shane McGrath.
But even if Jason came to the table with no great hurling lineage to speak of, he’d probably still have found an admirer in Donoghue. Because just like his six-foot-four inch father, Jason is a colossus. And Donoghue likes a rangy hurler. He had a team of them when he won the All-Ireland as Galway manager in 2017. The average height of that team was six-foot-one.
Of the six forwards that started the 2017 final win over Waterford, Jonathan Glynn was six-foot-five, Joseph Cooney was six-foot-four, Joe Canning, Conor Cooney and Cathal Mannion were all six-foot-two. Conor Whelan was the ‘smallest’, at six foot.
Rabbitte has the hurling ability to boot. Half an hour into his league debut against Tipperary in January, and with no less a player than Michael Breen applying the pressure from behind, Rabbitte abandoned traditional methods and chip-flicked the sliotar up into his grasp with his left foot. Breen was about to get the same treatment as Waterford’s Fitzgerald, as Rabbitte attempted to turn sharply, when his foot this time gave way.
In last year’s All-Ireland colleges final at Croke Park, his reverse handpass that set Cian Hannon away for a point was one of the highlights of that game.
He captained that team and Aaron Niland was a teammate. They both featured in the 2023 colleges final as well, and in the 2023 All-Ireland minor final for Galway. The pair were Galway U-20 starters last season and will be again this year.
When Rabbitte won that ball ahead of Breen against Tipp earlier this season and then slipped, he still got a pass away to, you guessed it, Niland. Another player with the physical and technical attributes to make it at the very top level.
Joe will be tracking Jason’s movements closely, of course. But he is a busy man too and the three-time All-Ireland club SHC medallist with Athenry managed the club’s camogie team to national success over winter, overcoming St Finbarr’s of Cork after a replay.
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Jason’s sisters, Sabina and Olwen, were front and centre in that team and on Wednesday afternoon, just as Jason was preparing for the Freshers final, Olwen was named in the AIB club camogie team of the year. Truth be told, what the Rabbitte sisters did over winter was even more impressive than Jason’s coming of age with the Galway senior team.
Sabina, for starters, won that All-Ireland in early January with a fractured foot.
“It happened in the first 10 minutes of the drawn game,” explained father and team manager Joe. “We came in at half time and she was up on the table and she was crying with pain, and Sabina doesn’t cry.”
Defender Olwen ruptured her ACL in the county final win over All-Ireland holders Sarsfields, and missed the subsequent national semi-final. Joe, trawling the internet for inspiration ahead of the final at Croke Park, came across an outlet in Letterkenny that sold knee braces designed for those who’d suffered such injuries. He got one sent down to Athenry, Olwen tried it on and it did the trick. With knee surgery postponed, Olwen played in the two All-Ireland finals and excelled, drilling a crucial late point in the replay to seal the landmark win.
The two sisters featured in Galway’s All-Ireland camogie final win last August too. So if it looks like Jason is a man inspired right now, hurling with abandon and playing with an anything-is-possible attitude, you can understand why.
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Galway's rising star has adapted quickly to senior hurling game
WHEN JASON RABBITTE raced through for the first of his two goals in last year’s Connacht Post-Primary Schools Senior A hurling final win, we were immediately reminded of his father, Joe.
And not because of the chip-off-the-old-block feel about the sumptuous, feathered touch that allowed Jason to gather in Ciarán Leen’s pass to open up the space in front of him.
Rather, and perhaps a little immaturely, it was because with Brendan Fox ahead of the Presentation College, Athenry forward in goals for Coláiste Bhaile Chláir, we were drawn back to that famous piece of Micheál Ó Mhuircheartaigh commentary from the early 1990s.
“Pat Fox has it on his hurl and is motoring well now, but here comes Joe Rabbitte hot on his tail – I’ve seen it all now, a Rabbitte chasing a Fox around Croke Park,” said O Mhuircheartaigh, on RTÉ Radio commentary for the 1993 All-Ireland semi final between Galway and Tipperary.
Well over three decades on, Tipp happen to be the hunted again and Galway just happen to have a talented young Rabbitte in their forward line again. Who knows, Jason might even do what his All-Star father Joe never managed to do in 12 years as a Galway senior – win an All-Ireland.
That’s a good bit down the road, of course, but the younger Rabbitte has certainly enjoyed a brilliant start to life as a senior county player.
Micheál Donoghue even seems to be building a crucial aspect of the team’s development, their ability to deliver long ball to the inside forwards, and to retain it there, around the towering Athenry teenager.
Ronan Glennon’s goal against Waterford last weekend was a case in point. Padraic Mannion arrowed a pass from midfield down into the number 13 zone, on the outside of Rabbitte, who had the power initially to win the ball ahead of Mark Fitzgerald, and then the game intelligence to instantly roll away from his man and to play in Glennon. When they talk about some players ‘seeing the picture’ well before the move plays out, this is what they mean.
It’s no great surprise that Rabbitte has adapted so quickly to senior activity, starting all four of Galway’s league games so far this year and returning six points, with plenty more created.
He has been tracked for years as a school and county underage talent, and he trained with the Galway seniors last year. On Wednesday night, he lined out for ATU Galway in the Fresher 1 hurling final, scoring and impressing but coming up just shy against a talented UL team.
Rabbitte, as it happens, is an Entrance Scholarship Award recipient at ATU Galway, one of eight students rewarded for achieving at least 550 points in their Leaving Cert.
On the pitch, he has a similar running gait to his father, long-legged and powerful, and capable of chewing up the yards in double quick time. He even wears the same distinctive protective glove on his hand, just like Joe.
“The way he carries himself, it’s just a carbon copy of his father,” remarked pundit and former Tipperary player Shane McGrath.
But even if Jason came to the table with no great hurling lineage to speak of, he’d probably still have found an admirer in Donoghue. Because just like his six-foot-four inch father, Jason is a colossus. And Donoghue likes a rangy hurler. He had a team of them when he won the All-Ireland as Galway manager in 2017. The average height of that team was six-foot-one.
Of the six forwards that started the 2017 final win over Waterford, Jonathan Glynn was six-foot-five, Joseph Cooney was six-foot-four, Joe Canning, Conor Cooney and Cathal Mannion were all six-foot-two. Conor Whelan was the ‘smallest’, at six foot.
Rabbitte has the hurling ability to boot. Half an hour into his league debut against Tipperary in January, and with no less a player than Michael Breen applying the pressure from behind, Rabbitte abandoned traditional methods and chip-flicked the sliotar up into his grasp with his left foot. Breen was about to get the same treatment as Waterford’s Fitzgerald, as Rabbitte attempted to turn sharply, when his foot this time gave way.
In last year’s All-Ireland colleges final at Croke Park, his reverse handpass that set Cian Hannon away for a point was one of the highlights of that game.
He captained that team and Aaron Niland was a teammate. They both featured in the 2023 colleges final as well, and in the 2023 All-Ireland minor final for Galway. The pair were Galway U-20 starters last season and will be again this year.
When Rabbitte won that ball ahead of Breen against Tipp earlier this season and then slipped, he still got a pass away to, you guessed it, Niland. Another player with the physical and technical attributes to make it at the very top level.
Joe will be tracking Jason’s movements closely, of course. But he is a busy man too and the three-time All-Ireland club SHC medallist with Athenry managed the club’s camogie team to national success over winter, overcoming St Finbarr’s of Cork after a replay.
Jason’s sisters, Sabina and Olwen, were front and centre in that team and on Wednesday afternoon, just as Jason was preparing for the Freshers final, Olwen was named in the AIB club camogie team of the year. Truth be told, what the Rabbitte sisters did over winter was even more impressive than Jason’s coming of age with the Galway senior team.
Sabina, for starters, won that All-Ireland in early January with a fractured foot.
“It happened in the first 10 minutes of the drawn game,” explained father and team manager Joe. “We came in at half time and she was up on the table and she was crying with pain, and Sabina doesn’t cry.”
Defender Olwen ruptured her ACL in the county final win over All-Ireland holders Sarsfields, and missed the subsequent national semi-final. Joe, trawling the internet for inspiration ahead of the final at Croke Park, came across an outlet in Letterkenny that sold knee braces designed for those who’d suffered such injuries. He got one sent down to Athenry, Olwen tried it on and it did the trick. With knee surgery postponed, Olwen played in the two All-Ireland finals and excelled, drilling a crucial late point in the replay to seal the landmark win.
The two sisters featured in Galway’s All-Ireland camogie final win last August too. So if it looks like Jason is a man inspired right now, hurling with abandon and playing with an anything-is-possible attitude, you can understand why.
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GAA Galway Hurling Rabbitte Out Of A Hat