Dan Delaney remembers his son Tom playing in underage blitzes.
How could he forget? Tom first started hurling with his brothers and cousins as a six-year-old in the Millennium Place estate in Cahir and by the time he was eight, and because he was scoring so much, he’d finish those blitzes as a goalkeeper.
That was in the interests of fairness but this was like something they’d never seen before. Because after the referee or the opposition management had politely asked to move him back there, in the hope of giving the others a chance, it wasn’t long before Tom showed them that goalkeepers can score too.
And that was when Dan knew that his young boy was something special.
“There was a fella reffing that day and he asked us ‘who’s that young lad?’ One of the Cahir coaches told him that’s Tom Delaney and the ref said I’ve reffed many underage games but ‘that’s the best underage player I’ve ever seen.”
“I’ll never forget it,” Dan says. “Tom had put up a cricket score anyway and sure we all thought that putting him in goals would take him out of the game. Then he started scoring points from his own line.”
When it was all going against them, the Waterford minor management team may have considered requesting a similar sort of arrangement this year. Because it was certainly a similar situation.
They needed some sort of respite anyway, when the boy from Cahir went on a Munster championship rampage, scoring from all sorts of angles on his way to 1-12 from play against them.
1-12. From play.
Dan is a very proud father but as his son’s displays earn rave reviews in Tipperary and beyond, he’s keen not to take any of the credit himself, and to give all the credit to his son Tom.
“He didn’t get it from me anyway, I’m going to hold my hand up to that, he definitely didn’t get it from me,” Dan laughs.
“Tom was naturally good as a young lad and as we went on, he got better and better and better. He used to puck around with his brothers and sisters and cousins all the time and that would have brought him on. His older brother Francie won a Tony Forristal with Tipperary and still plays with the club. His sister Christina won an All-Ireland under-16 football title with Tipperary and played minor for the county too.
“But all the way up along, Tom just loved it. Never once did he say ‘I want to give it up or pack it in.
“But I want no praise for this whatsoever, it’s Tom who deserves that not me. If he plays until he’s 40 I’d love it, and I’d always advise him to keep at it but would it tear the heart and soul out of our house if he was to give it up? That’s his career, not mine. Tom’s encouraged every day of the week, I can assure you of that.”
Críoch iontach ó lán tosach mionúr @TipperaryGAA Tom Delaney
The @CahirGAA minor got a great goal for the Tipp against @GaaClare
É seo agus buaicphointí eile ó ar fud na tíre ar #GAA 2021
📆 Anocht / Tonight
⏰ 20:00
📺 @TG4TV pic.twitter.com/hW91omwdAR— Spórt TG4 (@SportTG4) April 18, 2022
As members of the travelling community, the Delaneys settled in Cahir back in 2000 but these days, Tom is just one of the boys.
“It wouldn’t be known for the travelling community to be playing inter-county – there’s a few who play underage,” Dan says, “but unfortunately they just wouldn’t keep the interest there to go further.
“When it comes to the travelling community, people are known to get married young and they give it up. Hopefully that’s not the case with Tom,” he adds.
Joe Cleary is the juvenile chairman in Cahir and he doesn’t think it will be.
“He’s a very unassuming sort of character. He avoids the limelight. If you met Tom in the morning for example, and you didn’t know he played for the Tipp minors, you wouldn’t know because he wouldn’t say it to you. He’s that kind of person.
“He’s down the field the whole time, pucking the ball around with his father and brothers and cousins. So they have a great influence on him and if you’re looking for where he gets his inspiration from, it would be from them.
“But Tom’s a hero to all the young lads and girls in our club. The smaller lads in particular, they nearly get nervous when Tom’s around. They absolutely idolize him and it’s great for everyone here, it’s a huge deal for us because we don’t have too many hurlers who make the county team.”
Man of the Match for Tom Delaney.
Top Class performance pic.twitter.com/U7Nui4Jl7b— cahir gaa (@cahirgaaclub) June 19, 2022
“In Cahir, he’s just one of the lads,” Cleary adds. “It’s often been thrown at him in different games down through the years, lads saying stuff to him, but he has learned. When he was younger, he was getting sent off a lot, because he was getting risen by lads.
“But he’s rose above all that, and that’s the real story here. He’s a great model for so many children in similar positions and similar ways of life, and anything negative that did come out of it, he’s answered it by putting the scores on the board. And that is the best way to shut it up.”
On Sunday he plays at full forward for Tipperary, in the All-Ireland minor hurling final against Offaly. But whatever way that goes, and there’s a good chance that Delaney will light it up, there’s more to come from this youngster and we’ll leave the last word to his father Dan, because he puts it better than we ever could.
“We’re all born with two arms, two legs, a brain and a heart ticking inside of our chest. Anyone could have the ability to do it, whoever they are, providing they’ve the right go-ahead from home and an interest in it themselves.”
