PREMIER HEART AND FIRE SEEN AT ITS BEST
Doyle led the way as legacy was built upon
AHURRIED snap of the two captains before throw-in, over in the blink of an eye, that captures the magic of AllIreland final day.
Despite the similarities that jump out upon first glance at this image, this was two men who arrived to Croke Park with very different experiences under their belt.
On the left hand side, Wexford captain Tom Neville can be forgiven for looking slightly uncomfortable with his pre-match photoshoot pose. This was the Fethard-on-Sea native’s first time captaining Wexford in an All-Ireland final, having been involved with the county teams that beat Tipperary in 1960 before losing to the Premier in a five-goal thriller two years later.
Neville’s opposite number, Jimmy Doyle, was much more used to the big occasion, with the Premier looking to defend the trophy they won against Kilkenny 12 months previously.
Having broken into the senior side as a 19-year-old in 1958, this was Doyle’s sixth involvement in an All-Ireland hurling final, and by the final whistle he would be collecting his fifth Celtic Cross, as a Seán McLoughlin brace of goals steered Tipp to a 2-16 to 0-10 win in a game that failed to live up to the high standards set in the classic 1960 and ’62 deciders between the teams.
It was his second occasion to captain Tipp to the Liam MacCarthy, but this one was extra sweet. Doyle suffered a broken ankle in 1961, and when captain one year later, he broke his collarbone just 11 minutes into the All-Ireland final defeat of Wexford and so refused to go up and collect the cup.
This time, he really felt part of it, and so had no hesitation when his teammates hoisted him aloft with the famous trophy and paraded him around the Croke Park turf. To say he loved the game was an understatement.
As an infant, Doyle used to fashion a bundle of hurleys into a makeshift mattress on his bed, place some sliothars under his pillow and drift off to sleep.
‘In the night-time my mother used to come into the room and take the hurleys and the balls out from under me,’ he once recalled.
‘But I’d wake up during the night and I’d bring the hurleys back into the bed with me again.’
For Wexford captain Neville, the defeat to Tipp no doubt ensured some sleepless nights, and it would be four long years before he captured a second All-Ireland medal. Although the headgear was absent in the image above, Neville would go on to become one of the first inter-county players to adopt the use of a helmet during games.
In the background of the image is a subtle reminder that All-Ireland final day is not just about those armed with a camán. Referee Mick Hayes, a goalkeeper with Clare for ten years, was taking the whistle on the first Sunday in September for the first time.
While the rolled-up sleeves may suggest that these two captains were no-nonsense, hard-as-nails hurlers, it is more likely that the county jerseys were just well weathered and perhaps didn’t fit as generously as before.
Long before players were issued with bags of jerseys and gear to last the season, teams had to make one single set of jerseys last years on end — a practice that existed right up until the late eighties in some counties.
For many, few teams have worn the famous blue and gold with the same distinction as that great team of the mid-sixties, and they played a far more free-flowing and instinctive game than the neatly pulled-up woolen socks may suggest.
En route to the final, in their two Munster Championship outings, Tipp had bagged nine goals, with Doyle registering eight points.
He chipped in with a further six points in the final in front of an official attendance of 67,498 — possibly a slightly conservative figure given the ease some punters had in sneaking in without a ticket.
There was little surprise when Doyle was named Hurler of the Year, but it was also a special season for Holycross-Ballycahill corner-back John Doyle, who won his eighth — and last — Celtic Cross, bringing him level with the great Christy Ring.
The Premier men would fail to repeat the feat the following season as some of their bright sparks began to find their powers fading, but the legacy of that great Tipperary team has never been tainted.
Certainly, in 1965, there was no doubting their quality — a finetuned blue and gold machine at the peak of their powers.