In the press conference room at Croke Park there is a famous Con Houlihan quote: “The concept of a ‘born hurler’ is a total myth, but sometimes myths can be more powerful than truths.”
On Sunday in Croke Park Seamus Callanan passed into the realm of the mythical with a stunning performance at full-forward as Tipperary annihilated their great rivals Kilkenny.
The Drom and Inch man scored 0-13, including nine points from play, in a display that will live long in the memory. A substitute in 2010 when Tipperary last claimed Liam McCarthy, Callanan has in the interim grown into the main man in a wonderful Tipperary attack.
In last year’s All-Ireland semi-final he came within a whisker of beating Galway practically single-handedly, but in Tipperary’s four 2016 Championship matches before the final he had failed to hit the heights of that 70 minutes. His 2-7 from play before Sunday equal to the 3-4 from play he managed against the Tribesmen last August.
The 27-year-old, however, definitely saved the best for last – torturing All Star full-back Joey Holden, who struggled to deal with the Tipp forward’s potent combination of physicality and skill.
He scored the first point of the game when he capitalised on a Holden error and other than a strange blip, when he struck a free low enough for Cillian Buckley to block, he proceeded to put in a near flawless exhibition of hurling.
He struck only one wide and towards the end of the first half produced a spectacular piece of skill to, with his first touch, pluck the ball out of the sky, second get it into his hand and then he swivelled and shot over the bar.
He was simply awesome and, along with his corner forwards John O’Dwyer and John McGrath, they racked up 2-21 of Tipperary’s total of 2-29.
Post-match Michael Ryan was unaware of the scale of his full-forward’s contribution and he was quite taken aback when he learned his star man had nine points from play.
“Nine points? That’s not too bad. He is certainly not going to get given out to, that was fine. We’ll take that.
“You don’t need me to tell you he is a class player. He was almost a one-man show against Galway and yet Seamus didn’t score last month against Galway, so it just shows you how it all ebbs and flows,” he added.
“He made a huge contribution. Nine points is outrageous to be honest with you. It is a savage contribution from a full-forward.”
"I was just talking about you" – Seamie Callanan joins Mick Ryan for Tipp press conference #AllIrelandFinal pic.twitter.com/rn4tOpOLxv
— Mikey Stafford (@me_stafford) September 4, 2016
Callanan’s ears must have been burning because as Ryan was waxing lyrical the Tipp star wandered into the press conference room for a chat.
He may have to get used to people talking to him about his performance on Sunday. It will live long in the memory. It will pass into myth.
Listen to the Callanan conversation from 2’40” below.
