Tipperary hurling great Brendan Cummins still going strong at 50
Brendan Cummins in action during the M. Donnelly All-Ireland Poc Fada final. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
By Paul Keane
After celebrating his 50th birthday at the start of the summer, Brendan Cummins was reminded again about the swift passing of time whilst on the Cooley Peninsula on Bank Holiday Monday.
He was competing for what he reckoned was the 15th time in the M. Donnelly All-Ireland Poc Fada senior final and joined Louth's Darren Geoghegan in the dozen-strong list of competitors.
"He (Geoghegan) was actually carrying the flags for me and watching where the balls were going when I was up here competing years ago," smiled Cummins.
Prior to Monday, Cummins hadn't taken part in the national final since 2019. The last of his record nine titles came in 2015 having, two years earlier, tied the great Ger Cunningham on seven titles.
"Ger had the record, I always had it in my head that I wanted to get past that," said Cummins, a two-time All-Ireland SHC medallist with Tipperary. "I gave years to it. Back in the day when we'd be training with Tipp, and the All-Ireland finals were on in September, I'd have been up here in the middle of the Championship and people were going to me, 'What are you going up there for?!'
"But I always felt that if I could win it, and if I had a chance of doing it, I wanted to come up and give it a go. From an achievement point of view, I'm delighted to have had the success I did. As a personal challenge, it's right up there."
This time around, Cummins finished seventh. It was a decent showing considering he was taking on active, elite senior inter-county players in some cases.
"At my age now it's more of an endurance test," he said. "If a 50-year-old starts beating 25 and 26-year-olds in a Poc Fada competition, they'd want to have a look at themselves."
Still, he was as competitive as ever and, as game recognises game, current Kilkenny hurler Fionan Mackessy, declined to tap him up for advice beforehand. Mackessy and Cummins became friends when involved together with Kerry and Cummins had previously helped the big-hitting ciotog to claim national Poc Fada titles in 2023 and 2024.
"He said he couldn't ring me this year because I'd be competing against him," said Cummins. "I said, 'Ah look, why couldn't you? Of course you could'. But he didn't anyway.
"To be fair, he probably would have had a better chance, endurance-wise, if it had been the full course. They shut about half of it because of the wind and the weather. Now they played three quarters of it last year as well, and he still won, but the longer the course goes on, the more that plays to Fionan Mackessy's strengths because he's big and he's strong and he's athletic.
"He has everything going for him. So if it was going to take 52 or 53 pucks to get around, it would have given him a better chance than just doing 26 or 27."
A steward crosses a small bridge during the M. Donnelly All-Ireland Poc Fada finals at Annaverna Mountain. Photo by Shauna Clinton/Sportsfile
Limerick's Colin Ryan was the eventual winner, edging out Offaly star Cillian Kiely and Mackessy by a matter of metres.
It was Ryan's second title having previously won it in 2021 and the 2018 All-Ireland SHC medallist with Limerick was a worthy winner, showing remarkable stamina considering he'd played a full championship game for his club, Pallasgreen, the previous afternoon.
Cummins will shortly turn his attention back to on-field matters and the challenge of preparing another Tipperary U-20 hurling team for 2026. He's been the Tipp manager since late 2021 and this year's crew won the All-Ireland, an achievement matched by Liam Cahill's seniors. A number of players including the exciting Darragh McCarthy featured prominently for both groups.
"We understand the situation in Tipp, that it's never as good as you think it is, and never as bad as you think," said Cummins. "Go back to Thurles last year and Tipp were beaten handily by Cork and everyone thought, 'This thing has blown up altogether'. They turned it around. I was delighted for Liam Cahill because he got wicked stick last year. And that's the way it works as a manager, he understands that, we all do. But to turn it around, I'm delighted for him."
Are there any more McCarthys in the Tipp pipelines?
"I can see right down through the food chain, as we'd call it, and there's lots of potential there," said Cummins, a five-time All-Star goalkeeper. "But we have to develop them and bring them on and accelerate that progress as quick as we can by using our experience as management, that's the trick.
"I'm lucky in Tipp that I have Fintan (O'Connor) and Paddy Stapleton and Tom Costello in with me. Getting those characters was key for us because they put that same character into the group. Whatever about the hurling, all these young lads can hurl, but you're trying to build characters and personalities."
Brendan Cummins on the sideline with the Tipperary U-20s during the oneills.com Munster U20 Championship. Photo by Tyler Miller/Sportsfile
Cummins shrugged when asked how likely it is that he and Tipp will be celebrating again in 12 months.
"You don't know," he said. "People start off every year going on about wanting to win All-Irelands and that's always the ambition, year after year, the same as it was last year and the year before that as well.
"There's no doubt that when you have a sweet spot there with fellas going well and the young brigade coming through, that you have to make the most of it.
"And that's what we'll try to do again. It might work again for us next year, and it mightn't. But we'll keep going, next year and the year after and the year after. And we'll win again, at some stage, but there's no guarantees when it'll happen.
"Like, you couldn't say that the Tipp hurlers and the Tipp U-20s are guaranteed to even get out of Munster next year. You couldn't say that. And that's what fuels us all to get going again."
