Tradition is, Darragh Ó Sé once wrote, like a stack of hay - it doesn't take much to ignite it.
Going into yesterday's All-Ireland quarter-final between Tipperary and Galway, it was the Connacht champions who had tradition on their side - it did not aid them at Croke Park.
Galway are still without victory at GAA headquarters in 15 years.
Going into the game, Tipperary manager Liam Kearns did not mention to his side their ability to create history - to become the first Tipp football team to progress to an All-Ireland quarter-final in 81 years.
No, I didn’t mention 1935. I told them we were going to make our own tradition.
People were saying the tradition of Galway was going to wipe us out in Croke Park. But we didn’t think that. We felt they were two new teams. They hadn’t been here in 13 years and we had not either.
Telling his players that they could form their own traditions were not the Kerryman's only inspirational words for his team, he also told them the script for the day was going to be torn up.
How could Cork lose? They have so much talent. To lose to Tipperary is a disgrace. We got no credit at all for that game. Bit more for the Derry win but we were boxed off as the romance, ourselves and Clare. But as I said to the lads, ‘The script here is we are to drift away after today and be happy for our day in the sun but we are not going to read the script’.
Photo by Oliver McVeigh/Sportsfile
