Tipp completely dominate the XV
It’s that time of year again. The Sunday Game’s 2025 Team of the Year has been revealed, and everyone is having their say.
The 2025 Hurling Team of the Year features no less than seven Tipperary players following their incredible All-Ireland SHC final victory over Cork at Croke Park on Sunday.
Tipp’s Rhys Shelly, the first goalkeeper to score from play in an All-Ireland hurling final, is the first name on the sheet, with Eoghan Connolly, captain Ronan Maher and Robert Doyle also featuring.
Completing the Tipperary inclusions are Jake Morris, also voted Sunday Game Player of the Year, Andrew Ormond and John McGrath.
Four Corkmen make the XV in what was still a memorable year for the Rebels, with Ciaran Joyce, Brian Hayes, Sean O’Donoghue and Darragh Fitzgibbon included, while there are two from Kilkenny in Huw Lawlor and Martin Keoghan.
Dublin’s Cian O’Sullivan and Galway’s Cathal Mannion complete the XV.
Not everyone agrees with the XV, of course. One said: “Damien Fitzhenry overlooked again this year,” while another added: “Cathal Mannion over the likes of Conor Burke, Adam English, Tim O’Mahony and Cian Lynch is so weird. Stephen Bennett has to go in over Cian O’Sullivan aswell tbh.”
And another said: “There should be no Galway man in that team. However good he was.”
After being six points up at half-time in the All-Ireland SHC final, Cork ended up losing by 15 points to Tipperary, as their wait for another Liam MacCarthy goes on.
It was one of the great second-half performances we have ever seen in inter-county hurling with the Premier County scoring 2-14 to blow the Rebels away.
After the game, former Cork star Dónal Óg Cusack was fairly lenient in his assessment of his county.
He said: “The goals were a killer as well though. The goal, losing your fullback then, the whole game going against you. They were the killer then.
“All of Cork’s play needed to get those goals, Cork didn’t get those goals. They came at a killer time…
“In that second half, once the momentum swung it just felt like there was nothing Cork could do to get back in the game.”
However, former Tipperary All-Ireland winning manager, Liam Sheedy, was having none of it.
He responded: “Say what you like Donal Óg, but that was a massive underperformance from that Cork team in that last 35 minutes. That level of performance is not something you expect from that Cork team from what we witnessed all year.
“Whether it was the pressure of the All-Ireland final or what, they were a shell of themselves in the second half.”
Cusack added: “I don’t think it was the pressure, like.”
