Tullogher Rosbercon manager Michael Doyle reflects on All-Ireland Junior title triumph
‘Sky is the limit for this team’
Delivering a huge performance on the biggest stage in the country can only lead to bigger and better things for Tullogher-Rosbercon.
“The sky is the limit for this team,” a proud manager Michael Doyle said of his team. “I hope these guys go on from here and this win isn’t the pinnacle for Tullogher.”
Having guided his side back into Kilkenny’s intermediate ranks the Glynn-Barntown man ended his first year in the managerial hotseat by adding Leinster and All-Ireland titles to the trophy cabinet. Tullogher blazed a trail through the provincial campaign, giving Doyle every confidence ahead of the clash with St Catherine’s.
“I was quietly confident that the only team that would beat Tullogher was Tullogher,” he said. “I knew if we brought it today it would take an unbelievable team to stop us in this grade.”
That wasn’t cockiness from the manager - Tullogher have backed it up with some big results, not least in the county.
“We peaked at the right time,” he said. “We peaked in the Kilkenny championship in October and hurled really well. Over the winter we weren’t always at our best but we put our best foot forward in that first half. I hope anyone who watched that game will see what we were about.”
What was most impressive was how Tullogher played with the ‘no pressure’ attitude that had taken through their Leinster campaign.
“They played with abandon,” Doyle said of the team. “Before the game I said to the lads that regardless of what happened on the field the world goes on. We told them not to go out and play with fear and pressure as they’d regret it. The one day you get to Croke Park and you end up being nervous and playing it safe. I don’t think anyone did that. We made mistakes, of course we did, but that’s going to happen in games.”
Tullogher lit up the evening with an attacking display that saw them take control from the off. They rattled off 2-14 in the first half alone, hurling on a surface Doyle proclaimed as ‘like a playground for our forwards’. That they delivered such a show was no surprise.
“I’m sure the goals were a sickener for St Catherine’s,” he said. “We have been putting up big scores so I’m sure they would have wanted to keep things tight in the opening stages, but when we got those two early goals their heads dropped a little.”
And what of the future for this team? Doyle hopes bigger and better things are on the horizon.
“The age profile of the team is basically a side who are under 26 so I hope they set the bar high,” he said. “The intermediate championship in Kilkenny is wide open - it’s anyone’s to win.