Liam Kearns chooses to stand during his press conference.
He bounces in, looks reporters in the eye and greets them as they plant their recording devices on the table in front of him. He walks up to three empty chairs prepared for when some counties bring along a captain and a media manager.
The Tipperary boss doesn’t need any of that. He doesn’t even need a seat and, for over 13 minutes, he stands and speaks with the press. All of whom are sitting.
“We haven’t got the biggest management team and all these teams we’re coming up against, we can’t compare with what they have or the resources they have,” it’s a modest set-up for a modest man.
Kearns has just done what no-one in the county has managed to do since 1935 but he won’t accept the credit without mentioning his players. He won’t talk about management without praising conditioning coach Dave Moriarty or the influence of Munster rugby legend Ian Dowling.
Shane Stapelton, Paul Fitzgerald, all these lads are mentioned before he’d even think about turning the attention to himself.
But it’s hard to get away from the spotlight on a Sunday like this.
What Tipperary have done isn’t just monumental in the grand scheme of history or this season. As a performance, it was pure class. It was smart and it was skillful, it was downright frightening.
Tipp wanted to win, Galway were afraid of losing: it was a total mismatch, @ConanDoherty reports from Croke Park https://t.co/aSROfHS0gu
— SportsJOE (@SportsJOEdotie) July 31, 2016
It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
3/1 outsiders, Tipp had already done their bit. They beat Derry by a point in the game of the season, they entertained us all and they gave us a nice story in the bargain as they made the quarter-finals. Fair play to them.
But most were expecting them to go off back to the Premier county now and leave the rest of the country to get on with the business of competing for Sam. But 70 minutes of power and thrills and total believe and Liam Kearns has his men in the last four of the All-Ireland senior football championship. The last four.
“We were told this was bonus territory,” the Tipp boss responded to suggestions that now they’re in bonus territory. “These boys are ambitious.
“When you have to go down to Killarney to play Kerry in their own backyard with 30 All-Ireland medals sitting on the bench, those boys went down and did that, they’ll be quite happy to go up against either Tyrone or Mayo.
“I know nobody will give us a chance again but we deserve to have a crack at it. We’ve earned our right to be here.”
The Kerry man has used that disregard for his players to fire them up.
Before the game in Croke Park on Sunday, he had a few choice words for the Tipperary men that left it clear as day what they were to go out and do. It left the options simple: continue to be patronised or do something about it.
“Nobody gave us any credit for beating Cork,” he rallied. “It was all about Cork and how could Cork lose and they have so much talent, so much behind them and they’re winning All-Ireland under-21s and to lose to Tipperary is a disgrace.
“We got no credit at all for that game.
“We got a bit more for the Derry game but we were boxed off as part of the romance, ourselves and Clare.
“As I said to the lads before the game, ‘the script here now is that we’re supposed to drift away now and be happy for our day in the sun. But we’re not going to read the script. We’re here to win.’ That was the bottom line.”
Liam Kearns' non-dictatorship attitude is working. Take note!https://t.co/rLa4tn5y4Q
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) July 31, 2016
Even their own county people are taking their sweet time in giving the Tipp lads the respect they’re owed.
There was a sweet moment after the game when every man, woman, and child draped in blue and yellow made their way over to the Hogan Stand – even if they were seated at the other side of the pitch.
The players joined them and they embraced and sang together and took photos with one another.
"Tipperary, Tipperary, ole ole ole!" pic.twitter.com/cMwSq7UphL
— GAA JOE (@GAA__JOE) July 31, 2016
It was a unifying moment that will be remembered forever but only by the select few that made the trip to Dublin to witness history being made.
“There was only a small band there, we could do with a lot bigger band,” Liam Kearns admitted about the turnout of fans.
“Tipperary’s a big county. I hope the players get the support they deserve because they’re putting in a massive effort on behalf of the county and they’re doing the county proud.
“They’re playing great football. I think they deserve more support.”
He says the winner of Tyrone and Mayo will be the favourites for the All-Ireland. He says they’ll be overwhelming favourites to beat Tipperary but it’s nothing they’re not used to.
“I don’t know if it’s Tyrone or Mayo, they’ll both be expecting to beat us as well. But, look, to be talking about ourselves in the same breath as Tyrone, Dublin, Kerry, that’s a fair achievement.
“I’m just delighted we have three weeks to let this sink in and prepare ourselves for Tyrone but we could do with three months maybe,” we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt that he wasn’t overlooking Mayo.
Maybe for once though, teams and pundits and GAA people – in the county and outside of it – will stop overlooking Tipperary. Maybe they’ll get the credit they’re due.
“We’re not saying we’re going to win the All-Ireland,” Liam Kearns said. “But we are saying that we deserve respect.”
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