Ballyea won the Munster club title today and unsurprisingly the garlands are raining down on their young 'galactico' Tony Kelly.
The Clare club, who won their first ever county title this year and who have been down in the junior and intermediate grades for most of their existence, beat Cork city aristocrats Glen Rovers in Semple Stadium today.
Never behind once during the game, they would ride out a spirited third quarter comeback from the Cork champs to win comfortably in the end. 1-21 to 2-10 was how it finished up.
They had many stars and Pat Fluery would hand the MOTM award to Niall Deasy, though Kelly does hog most of the limelight. After one Deasy point (Ballyea's fourth of the game) the camera chose to linger on Kelly in the aftermath. Force of habit.
The rest of the hurling world paid homage.
The black and amber jersey bringing the best out of Tony Kelly ?? #we'lltakehim
— Richie Hogan (@richiehogan8) November 20, 2016
My word what an unbelievable talent Tony Kelly is....on the ball an absolute joy to watch..... Great game so far ...
— Liam Sheedy (@LiamLsheedy) November 20, 2016
Tony Kelly wow that's all ye need to say ?
— AussieGleeson (@AussieGleeson) November 20, 2016
Tony Kelly is on a different planet of hurling on this form. Unbelievable to watch ?? #TheToughest
— Kieran Joyce (@joycek87) November 20, 2016
Anyway, it's clear to us that what people want above all following the Munster club final is the Tony Kelly highlight reel. He had fun out there.
He started early here. Beautiful dummy leaves the defender stranded and he flashes it over the bar to make it 0-2 to 0-1.
Probably his finest point of the game here to make it 1-5 to 0-4. This was Kelly's third score.
This play concluded with Kelly being blown for over-carrying when most would agree he was surely fouled beforehand.
Quick to pounce on this with bodies ready to hurtle into him from every direction. Wonderful pick-up. Pity his radar went awry with the finish.
Close up.
His fifth from play and last score of the game, this showcased his defensive side. Nice interception, swift-pick up and straightforward finish. Full marks to the crowd for the guttural roar. Classic insurance score 'we've this game won' roar, if ever I heard one.
With the game more or less won, Kelly decided to embark on a daring victory run. The determination to finish with a flourish was strong here.
