Tipp minor boss on the unlikeliest of All-Ireland wins, why 2022 success felt better and feeling hurt for his pal

“I got friendly in the last two years with Niall Bergin, the Kilkenny manager,” he begins. “A nicer chap you won’t come across. And to be honest with you, I am broken-hearted for him.”

Woodlock worked in Kilkenny for several years in the gardaí, based in the city, and while the county has a ferocious rivalry with Tipperary, he saw both sides of the sporting coin a week ago.

While Tipperary were lauded for a remarkable coup, Kilkenny’s defeat was made more damaging by their numerical superiority, the black and amber chasing a first All-Ireland minor triumph in 10 years.

“The week coming up to the match, I was saying one of us is going to suffer defeat here,” Woodlock recalls, thinking of his counterpart. “I am sure he has got terrible stick for that game. But it could have gone either way. And I would just like to have it said that I think nobody deserves any abuse like that for losing any game. I have the utmost respect for the man and I think people should not be giving any undue criticism.

“That man is a decent man, I am very sorry for what he is going through. I know we all must take criticism, but some of it is absolutely uncalled for.”

After the match, Bergin visited the Tipperary dressing room.

“He was unbelievable the way he spoke to our players, so calm and composed,” states Woodlock, “even though he was at the lowest point. I honestly don’t think I’d have been able to do what he did. And the players spoke about it in the day or two after.”

But, as ever, to the victor belong the spoils. Woodlock has a photograph from the day he will treasure for the rest of his life, a family portrait of his wife Michelle and their five kids, aged from two to nine, down on the pitch after the match, celebrating the most unlikely win.

“I had to go to Thurles the day before, to send my wife in to buy them brand new jerseys. I’m a big family man, them and the GAA are my life. That’s what I do. So I wanted them to be there and to appreciate it because they’re the future coming through, all those kids, including my own.”

He is married to Michelle Shortt, an All-Ireland camogie winner with Tipp and first cousin of Noel McGrath. Woodlock took over the minors in 2021, a short and disruptive year due to Covid, and in the three years since has guided the county to two Munster and two All-Ireland wins.

In a summer of frustration for the county’s senior hurling team, eliminated from the championship when crushed by Cork in Semple Stadium by 18 points, theU-17s have restored morale amongst followers.

The evening after that drubbing from Cork, the minors won the Munster final, a night laden with symbolism because the John Doyle Cup was being presented for the first time. The captain, Cathal O’Reilly, hails from the same club as Doyle, the hurling legend who died in 2010.

They overcame Galway after extra-time in the All-Ireland semi-final and lost the toss for the All-Ireland final venue. Two years before, Woodlock’s minors won a gripping All-Ireland minor final against Offaly in Kilkenny when Paddy McCormack scored the winning goal with almost the last puck.

On Saturday last, they surpassed even that, defeating Kilkenny by 2-17 to 3-12 after extra-time despite losing two players to red cards in the first half.

Cillian Minogue, their leading marksman, was sent off after seven minutes, followed by midfielder Darragh O’Hora 18 minutes later. To win after extra-time almost defied belief, Billy O’Brien’s goal sealing a record 22nd All-Ireland minor title.

“People are talking about the performance on Saturday night as the greatest in the history of Tipperary sport,” says Woodlock, “but the one in 2022, I thought it couldn’t be beaten.

“The way it was done because, in the last couple of minutes, we stayed at it and at it and at it. And we came from six points down to win that game. We had 14 players on the field. I cherished that All-Ireland as much as I cherished the All-Ireland we won the other day.”

Woodlock talks of “passion” and “desire” and “heart” and “determination” and while these players are only 17, in the main, they are talked of already as “leaders”.

In a proud hurling county like Tipperary they have lifted spirits through the quality of their hurling and the strength of their character.

“Like the old values and traditions we have in Tipp,” says Woodlock, “they are coming back again and being reinstated.”

He is indebted to his management team, selectors and coaches: Conor O’Brien, Cormac McGrath, Ray Doyle, Brendan Ferris and Willie Ryan.

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“The way the players conducted themselves after each sending-off, when they came into the dressing room they were just looking for direction as to what needed to be done. And once you had given it to them, they did it to the best of their ability. They said at the last training session on Thursday that their best performance was going to come and it would be needed. And they gave it.

“These players are players for the future and have proven it in the last three years, both sets really. They have the passion and the desire that people crave every day they go out to watch Tipp play. That’s what they crave above all. They want the honesty to come out from players and the passion.

“The players are good enough. The players are there. But now they need to be harnessed and brought through and not let fall through the net.

“These are the hope for Tipperary hurling. Hopefully, for the next 10 years, but it will take them time to come through. Of course it will. They are only chaps, they are only juveniles. But what they produced the other day as juveniles, you would love to see them reproduce as U-20s and senior hurlers in years to come.”

Life throws all things at you and sometimes even hurling matches seem inconsequential.

“When we talk about adversity and the weight on their shoulders,” said Woodlock, “the greatest adversity we had was when a player on our panel last August lost his brother and his sister in the most tragic of all circumstances down in Clonmel.”

David McSweeney hurls with St Mary’s and was on the extended panel. Last year, his brother Luke and sister Grace lost their lives in a car accident that also claimed the lives of two others. Woodlock talks of how they supported each other and how his family was there on Saturday to share in the joy.

“That’s real adversity and they came through that. So the other night was probably a special night for them as well.

“When I talk about leaders to you, it wasn’t just the leaders on the field of play, we had leaders in that 38 [man panel] and David was one of them. He is an exceptional, bright, intelligent, young man, who’s loved by the panel of players and he gave us huge motivation for the year, as the panel gave him and his family when the need was greatest for them.”

With two players down last Saturday, Tipp needed something out of this world.

“On a day like that,” says Woodlock, “when everything is thrown up in the air so early, you are looking at the sky and to the people above looking down on top of you, your friends and family members that have gone up there, and seeing if they are looking down and if they can support you.

“And I think they did on Saturday. I honestly believe they did.”