EDITORIAL: Did you switch over the channel? Did you maybe even leave Nowlan Park early? 

Did you switch over the channel? Did you think Offaly had won? Did you maybe even leave Nowlan Park early? 

If you did, you missed an epic conclusion to the 2022 All-Ireland minor hurling final. It was a finale that only this Tipperary side could have delivered.

Snatching a penalty shoot-out victory against Clare in the Munster final, and coming back from the dead against Galway - this young side seem to always feel they can win a game, no matter whether the scoreboard or the clock is against them.

James Woodlock’s minor hurling team never know when they’re beaten.

They fought until the very end on Sunday as a last-minute goal saw the Premier County collect its 21st crown in the grade and a first since 2016.

As Eamonn Wynne reports in the sports section, on the last few seconds of the game, he writes: “Paddy Phelan lobbed the free in and around the square and Paddy McCormack proved the hero of the hour when he rose high among a forest of hurleys and flashed a one-handed shot to the net. It was incredible, quite incredible.”

Noel Dundon was in Thurles for the homecoming, and what a remarkable spectacle he describes on page five: “Thurles was also a happy place on Sunday evening and that feeling was mirrored through the county – these wonderful minors have made a major impact on the mood of Tipperary.”

And what a lift the victory gives the county.

We’re in July and celebrating a Tipperary All-Ireland win, we should be so grateful! These young boys, their families and their management team have given us a summer of hurling - and the county owes them all a huge debt.

With 25 clubs represented on the panel, the victory will be celebrated far and wide and we’ve got all the reaction, analysis and souvenirs one could need with a special pull-out poster in the middle of the paper to mark this momentous occasion for

Tipperary as we celebrate our first minor hurling All-Ireland in six years.

The future’s looking bright.