THE CORBETT FILES:
The Queen, Obama and ‘tippy-tappy’ hurling...
LAR CORBETT meets The Queen. Lar Corbett meets Barack Obama. It reads like the kind of series an American network might commission, except with Oprah Winfrey at the heart of it rather than a Tipperary hurler and three-time All-Star. But that was the kind of far-fetched scenario the All-Ireland winner was living out 10 years ago, when he was one of hurling’s hottest properties.
In May 2011, there was a good reason he was hand-picked for an historic Royal visit to Dublin which took in Croke Park and the subsequent arrival of a US President. ‘Larry’ was the hat-trick hero from the 2010 final, when Tipperary lifted the Liam MacCarthy Cup in style, stopping Kilkenny’s five-in-a-row bid in the process. Meeting state dignitaries was part and parcel of a summer of unscripted drama during which he went one better than the final and rattled in 4-4 in the Munster final against Waterford.
Time and tide have moved on since and one of Tipperary hurling’s favourite sons will be on duty at
Mrs Crogh’s in Thurles, where this afternoon’s Munster final between Tipperary and Limerick will be screened to those in search of a GAA-themed outdoor dining experience.
With the square in Thurles dug up at the moment and regular business in the town still half-shuttered, it’s been a testing time for anyone with a hand in the hospitality trade, as well as his own online sports brand Lar Corbett Sports. Turns out though that the birth of a fourth daughter – all are under seven – has been a reminder of priorities and he gives a philosophical take on how the pandemic has shaped the past year at home with his wife Elaine.
‘Family is what is taking up a lot of my time at the moment. I’ve four daughters. My last daughter Ada was born December 2019 and then the country closed down in March 2020. My hands have been full.
‘Looking back, it actually gave us great time together during lockdown. The girls were at home, home schooling with myself and my wife. It actually brought a bit of normality in that I was always rushing between work and online business and sport and Thurles Sarsfields and Tipperary. This was the first time there was nothing to do and it worked nicely as a family together. I was very lucky in that respect.
‘The country closed down. We were told we weren’t allowed open. My family was okay. My wife was okay. We weren’t going hungry. We had everything we needed. So sometimes the simple things in life you put a value on. We can forget about those. I learned through coronavirus to stop taking work and things outside your family that are outside of your control too serious.’
He’s learned to adapt in business as best he can. ‘We decided that we had to change our concept. We have an outdoor area and have been allowed open through that. We’ve been doing okay.’
Watching Limerick win a winter Championship with no crowds allowed, he found it all a bit hard to warm to. ‘The winter Championship was a hard one. It wasn’t the freeflowing
Championship you’d normally see. Top of the ground.’
Like this afternoon’s box office affair at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Or the breakout summer of 2010 which put him in the orbit of Queen Elizabeth II and shake the white-gloved hand of royalty.
ROYAL APPROVAL
TEN years on then, does it still seem surreal, being present at Croke Park for what was an historic visit to Ireland in so many ways?
‘There’s a good friend of mine in Mallow, Eddie O’Donnell. Looks after a few players down the years. He rang me and said would I be interested in going to meet the Queen. My answer? “Yes, I would.”
‘Now at the time there was a small bit of hesitation with GAA players but I said “no problem” because I find that if you’re the first person to do something and it is successful, others will follow. He said, “We’re going to need someone else”. So I rang Pádraic Maher and the two of us went in the car.’
Gaelic footballers Joe Sheridan from Meath and Kevin Nolan from Dublin were also present on the day.
‘It was a great experience. Lovely. I’m delighted that I said I’d go up. A couple of months after, Barack Obama came to Dublin and I was asked and I think Paudie came with me that day as well!
‘A surreal moment as well. You get to see the world media, the snipers on the roof, the Secret Service, the whole environment these people come with. When Obama came out on stage to speak to the world media about Ireland, we were there behind him. He turned around and shook a few hands.’
So was he nervous?
‘It’s like anything, doing new things in business. Take a chance. Enjoy these experiences.’
And the reaction on the whole to meeting the Queen was hugely positive, taken by many as progressive and mature reflection of Ireland. How to tally that then with the Euros and all the anti-England sentiment, particularly for the final against Italy. ‘We are a little bit funny. An awful lot will support United or Liverpool or Arsenal but don’t support England.’
When the ball is thrown in for Tipperary-Limerick, he’ll be in situ. ‘We hope to be very, very busy in our outdoor area. We’re showing the Munster final and we hope the people of Thurles will come and support us.’
LIFE IN MAHERS
EVEN wearing his forward’s hat, the three-time All-Star can’t defend the decision of James Owens to send Clare’s Aidan McCarthy to the sinbin in the Munster semi-final and award a controversial penalty for the tackle on Jake Morris, Tipperary using that moment to kick on and win the game. He’s not a fan of the new sin-bin rule as it is being implemented.
‘If you give referees a device which is the whistle, they think they have to use it, rather than only use it when supposed to. It’s taken the free-flowing hurling out of it. Hurling is an instinctive game. It’s not set for too many rules and regulations. You will ruin it over a course
of time. Hurling to me is going a little bit tippy-tappy. And if there’s a pull there’s a free. And why is it a free? People are nervous to go for the tackle, to put themselves out there. That’s my own take.
‘I just think it has to be a goal opportunity. Now I’m a Tipp man and we back our own all the time but I think we’re all in agreement that Jake Morris was not in a goal opportunity.’
He sees much to admire though in All-Ireland champions Limerick, in their system of play and how they carry themselves. ‘What I like about Limerick is how collective they are. What an understanding they have. No greediness. Running off the shoulder. They know if they run hard enough, and wide enough, and they’re in a better position, they’ll get the ball. You can have all the gameplans you want but some players don’t want to give that pass.
‘Limerick have a design that they all see the right pass. And if it breaks down, the wing-forwards are back working and trying to win it back.
‘I like their system; I like their togetherness. I like the way their manager talks, their players talk. There’s a great normality, a humbleness, in how they speak and that translates on the field.’
But he signs off with a rallying call on behalf of some of his old teammates.
‘In the likes of the Mahers – Bonnar, Brendan, Paudie – plus Seamie Callanan, Noel McGrath, Tipp have been very lucky to come with this crop of players. But this is very important. These players are not finished. People are saying all the time, “Oh, what age is such and such? How many games have they played?” Judge these by what they do this year. We have to stop thinking about what age they are. Once they are putting in the performance. These are the best we have. I look at Pádraic Maher, my own club man. He’s not finished. Not near finished. He’s still as fit as four or five years ago. Has the bit between his teeth after working hard over lockdown. In Tipp, we’re very quick to judge a person on age. I’d like to squash all of that. Judge these fellas on their performances, not their age.’
Recently, Tipp FM ran a public vote as to Tipperary’s Greatest Ever Sporting Moment. Corbett’s hattrick against Kilkenny was right up there, only beaten in a head-to-head by ultimate winner Rachael Blackmore after the jockey’s mouldbreaking wins in the Grand National and at Cheltenham.
‘If they had done it the week before the Grand National, I would have won! Ah no, I never met Rachael but between Cheltenham and Grand National it was just fantastic. I couldn’t have been beaten by a better athlete in 2021.’
Names and moments that will stand the test of time as Tipperary’s hurlers again look to steal the limelight.