Lyndon Fairbrother won’t give two damns about a top scorer award.
Sunday’s Electric Ireland Minor Hurling Championship final gives him that chance but it’s not important.
He’s been here before, he’s been left heartbroken on the first Sunday of September before and he probably didn’t take much consolation from the five points he walked away with from Croke Park last year in the final.
Tipperary have been down this road already and they know there’s not much anyone can say or offer that will remove the pain of an All-Ireland defeat.
So the Premier County’s sharpshooter heads into Sunday’s decider with an outside shot of finishing the season as the championship’s leading scorer but it’s not anything that will interest him at the end of the day. All that matters to Lyndon Fairbrother and his Tipp minor team mates is that they’re on the Hogan Stand steps before the senior teams take the field.
All that matters is that there will be no more scenes like this at full time.
Limerick too have their own shot of redemption.
They refused to go under when it would’ve been the easiest thing in the world for a group of minors to down tools after a 17-point mauling in a Munster final at the hands of Tipp.
But they’ve come back. They beat Wexford, they beat Dublin, and against all odds they have emerged into the Electric Ireland final. Again. They too have been there recently but it’s a different team now who has come through its own adversity. It’s a team led by Brian Ryan.
After Limerick’s shock win over the capital the last day out, the semi-final match report read like this about Ryan:
“His second point, in the 31st minute, was one to treasure. After a long, mazy run he lost possession but battled back, helped win the turnover, took possession, swivelled and shot sharply.”
It summed him up, his grit and his talent. All in one.
And it’s one of the reasons why he is featuring as one of the championships top scorers.
It would take something special for Fairbrother to catch Wexford’s Rory O’Connor at this stage but if one man is capable of it, it’s the same man who put Limerick to the sword already this year.
MOTM goes to Lyndon Fairbrother. Blistering display when it counted in the Munster MHC #ThisIsMajor pic.twitter.com/nNrxLPRSv6
— Electric Ireland (@ElectricIreland) July 12, 2015
He won’t be thinking about any of that though. His eyes are on the prize. The only thing his points count for are in the biggest game of these boys’ lives.
Tipperary can put to bed their demons of last September and Limerick are here looking to finally slay the giant that has denied them two Munster titles in the last two years.
But Sunday isn’t about vengeance. Come 1.15pm, all it’s about is a group of young men who are 60 minutes of hurling away from All-Ireland glory. Any agendas or subplots are minor at this stage.
This is major.
Minor players are embarking on their adult lives, many are about to finish school and start college, they have hopes and dreams and ambitions, but for this one moment in time, the Electric Ireland Minor Championships is the major thing in their lives. Follow the conversation at #GAAThisIsMajor.
