\n Source: The42<\/p>\n
WHERE IS BEST to start?<\/p>\n
Back to October 2004, when the 16-year-old goalkeeper helped his club take the reigning Kilkenny and Leinster champions O\u2019Loughlin Gaels to a county quarter-final replay?<\/p>\n
Or maybe more recently, that remarkable feat of escapology as the 34-year-old forward smashing in the last-gasp goal that delivered a sensational ending to an All-Ireland semi-final?<\/p>\n
Two afternoons that have bookended a glittering hurling career for TJ Reid in Ballyhale Shamrocks colours.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow he steps out in Croke Park, bidding for a 6th All-Ireland senior club hurling medal. Apply some context. Birr and Portumna with four titles apiece, are the clubs closest to that figure.<\/p>\n
Reid\u2019s brother Eoin and Colin Fennelly are within touching distance of that personal feat as well, but TJ has both started and scored in the previous five finals, since the 2007 national announcement when he torched the Loughrea defence and rifled home 2-2.<\/p>\n
After years adorning the Croke Park stage, he considers to exert a seismic influence on the club hurling landscape.<\/p>\n
And yet three weeks ago in Thurles with the game sinking deep into injury-time, that great winning run looked on the cusp of ending, when he sized up that free to the right of the Killinan End goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was just walking around, ready to take it and everyone knew what he was going to try and do,\u201d recalls Liam Fennelly, the Kilkenny and Ballyhale playing great.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe all knew he was going to hit it hard, but I think we were a small bit surprised ourselves that it went into the net.<\/p>\n
\u201cSure, he\u2019s unbelievable really.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
The TG4 footage of the bullet Reid unleashed to the net is not far off 300,000 views on Twitter. He talked after the game of leaving his hurley in a bucket of water the night before to give the bas extra weight and how that facilitated the purity of his strike.<\/p>\n
\n63 n\u00f3im@BallyhaleGAA 2\u201315@StThomassHC 0-20<\/p>\n
C\u00daL EILE AG TJ!!!@BallyhaleGAA HAVE WON IT!!!!@GAA_BEO <\/p>\n
BEO\/LIVE AR @TG4TV pic.twitter.com\/NcnNOnfM8i<\/p>\n
— Sp\u00f3rt TG4 (@SportTG4) January 23, 2022<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cYou\u2019re thinking is he a bit far out? Is the angle too narrow?\u201d says Brian Hogan, Reid\u2019s former Kilkenny team-mate.<\/p>\n
\u201cHow many times do we see the last minute of a game and you\u2019ve got a free, a sea of bodies and it ricochets off two or three lads and the game peters out?<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not going to lie and say I knew he was going to score it.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut I\u2019ve been on the receiving end, I\u2019ve seen him do stuff like that.<\/p>\n
\u201cWith TJ there\u2019s always a chance.\u201d<\/p>\n
*****<\/p>\n
\n Source: Ryan Byrne\/INPHO<\/p>\n
For Ballyhale Shamrocks, TJ Reid has lined out in 25 senior hurling championship finals \u2013 13 in Kilkenny, 7 in Leinster and 5 on the All-Ireland stage.<\/p>\n
He has won every Leinster and All-Ireland club decider he has played in. In the local domain he has enjoyed nine Kilkenny victories, endured one draw (2011) and suffered three defeats. The only county final he missed was 2012 through injury, the legacy of a broken kneecap suffered in the All-Ireland against Galway.<\/p>\n
Reid has got on the scoresheet in all 25 of those finals. Last December\u2019s Leinster decider against Clough-Ballacolla was the only time he was scoreless from play. He has been the game\u2019s top scorer in 11 of those finals, three times on All-Ireland day when the pressure and the expectation tends to swell up around him.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first final against Loughrea, he was exceptional,\u201d says Liam Fennelly.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook from there, being honest he\u2019s absolutely spectacular to watch. He\u2019s unbelievably powerful under the ball. He has every skill of the game you can ask for.<\/p>\n
\u201cBeing a left-hander, often they don\u2019t look as poised as the right-hander, but he\u2019s a spectacular citeog hurler really to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n
Where does he rank then in the club hurling pantheon?<\/p>\n
If the criteria is narrowed to forwards and focused on the era since the inception of the All-Ireland club championships in 1971, a year before Ballyhale Shamrocks came into existence, then Reid is right up there.<\/p>\n
Ray Cummins and Jimmy Barry-Murphy shone with Blackrock and St Finbarr\u2019s during their national triumphs in the \u201870s. The Fennelly clan was synonymous with Ballyhale\u2019s first drive for success.<\/p>\n
\nAdvertisement<\/div>\n\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nA couple of Galway sharpshooters have stood up.<\/p>\n
Eugene Cloonan struck 1-34 in four All-Ireland finals, winning three of them with Athenry between 1997 and 2001.<\/p>\n
Joe Canning is a contemporary of Reid\u2019s. He played in five deciders with Portumna and won four, amassing 1-47 in those games. Even in defeat he was magnificent, putting on an exhibition in knocking over 0-12 when losing to Ballyhale in 2010.<\/p>\n
Closer to home to Reid, there is an obvious comparison.<\/p>\n
\u201cHenry brought it to a new level and then to think that you\u2019d have a forward like TJ coming on behind, you just don\u2019t believe that could happen,\u201d says Fennelly.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe argument now is between them in the local public houses. Just spectacular forwards, hurlers and individuals. They\u2019ve brought so much to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hogan fronted up against both Shefflin and Reid in the club arena, while sharing a county dressing-room with them on a long-term basis. There are similarities in their styles of play.<\/p>\n
\n TJ Reid and Brian Hogan in opposition in 2010.<\/p>\n
Source: Lorraine O’Sullivan\/INPHO<\/p>\n
\u201cI would have marked them both. They\u2019ll rotate, they\u2019ll move. Henry would be centre-forward, he\u2019d move out wing-forward, he actually played midfield in one county final.
\n\u201cTJ\u2019s just a really intelligent player. Very similar to Henry. You think you have him for 40, 50 minutes, and then it\u2019s just two minutes and all of a sudden, he\u2019s done the damage.\u201d<\/p>\nLast November\u2019s county final was a case in point. Hogan was in the stand, urging on his O\u2019Loughlin Gaels club-mates and at various stages, felt they were putting the squeeze on Ballyhale.<\/p>\n
But just as the grip was about to tighten, their opponents wriggled free, the revival encapsulated by the two goals created by Reid.<\/p>\n
\u201cHuw Lawlor had a massive game and TJ was very quiet. You\u2019re looking at it, thinking we\u2019re doing everything right. But TJ dropped out deep, out to midfield and his own half-back line, picking up some ball. That ask questions then, do you follow him and leave a big hole? Or do you hold a line?<\/p>\n
\u201cHe\u2019s such a clever hurler, such a good distributor of the ball. His head is up the whole time, he\u2019s sizing up what\u2019s on.\u201d<\/p>\n
*****<\/p>\n
In the Kilkenny camp, his career had an initial slow-burning feel to it. Dazzling with his cameo off the bench in the 2008 All-Ireland final destruction of Waterford.<\/p>\n
Thereafter solidifying a place in the Kilkenny team proved difficult and by mid-summer 2012 he was considering a county exit, the guidance of Shefflin proving pivotal in coaxing him to stay put.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe came in that day in 2008 and got four points out of the blue, one touch hurling, in the hand, over the bar,\u201d recalls Fennelly.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom 2012 onwards he was the mainstay in the team. Why he didn\u2019t come in earlier, there was a lot of discussion in Kilkenny about that. I suppose he probably was the type of player that got the ball and it depended on his ability to get his score.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrian added the other parts of the game \u2013 team play, bringing other people into the game, work-rate. I think it took about three years to get that right under Brian. Then once that was part of his gameplan, he had everything.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n Kilkenny’s 1992 All-Ireland winning captain Liam Fennelly.<\/p>\n
Source: James Meehan\/INPHO<\/p>\n
The club game helped Reid advertise his talents. Ballyhale had been in the doldrums for a club with their history but ended a 15-year wait for a senior crown in 2006. That was the beginning of the modern empire they have created, kick-starting four-in-a-row.<\/p>\n
Reid was operating just before his 19th birthday for the first of those victories, that string of successes got him noticed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe first couple of county finals he played in, I won\u2019t say he was running the show, but he stood out,\u201d says Hogan.<\/p>\n
\u201cHenry was in his pomp, Fenno and Cha and the lads were all on the team. TJ was the guy that was causing a lot of the damage, shooting the lights out at the age of 19, 20.<\/p>\n
\u201cTJ didn\u2019t care who he was marking, who he was playing against, just hurled as if he was out in the back field. It was the same when he came in with Kilkenny, he just wanted to go hurl.<\/p>\n
\u201cBefore he nailed down a position on the senior squad, there was a few years he was the best club hurler in the county. Himself and Richie Hogan would have come in to Kilkenny, you\u2019d know of them. Richie was the slightly bigger name but you could see straight away the ability TJ had and the confidence.<\/p>\n
\u201cHenry being his own club man, he\u2019d know him. He\u2019d be telling Henry that he should be the free-taker, in a joking, messing way. Then he\u2019d put the ball down and stick it over from 50 yards. This is a lad of 21 but he had that kind of confidence, you knew the occasion would never really faze him.\u201d<\/p>\n
***<\/p>\n
For all his prowess with Kilkenny, that has yielded the seven All-Irelands and five All-Stars, the club game has been a core element of TJ\u2019s hurling.<\/p>\n
His father Sean claimed an All-Ireland U21 medal in 1974 with his four sons \u2013 Patrick, Eoin, TJ and Richie \u2013 all contributing to the club\u2019s modern success story. From their home in Kiltorcan, they have been integral in shaping Ballyhale\u2019s superpower status.<\/p>\n
On final day, Reid has frequently delivered. In Kilkenny there was 0-10 against St Martin\u2019s in 2007, the six white flags raised from play in the 2009 decider against James Stephen\u2019s, another 0-10 haul against Clara in 2014 and the 1-10 tally to help break Bennettsbridge\u2019s resistance in 2018.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe has unbelievable power in his stroke,\u201d says Fennelly.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIf you watch him hitting the ball, he reminds me of a tennis player taking a serve. Everything goes, the whole body is striking it. TJ is just an absolute genius to watch.<\/p>\n
\u201cTaking a free, the trajectory he hits, the ball is never affected by the wind, he has an unbelievable shot. From out the field, he\u2019s so accurate.\u201d<\/p>\n
\n TJ Reid.<\/p>\n
Source: Laszlo Geczo\/INPHO<\/p>\n
Different aspects jump out for Hogan. His ball-winning ability.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Nowlan Park, there was a league match one day against Limerick. Dan Morrissey and one of the other half-backs. It was 2 v 1 and they\u2019re big guys, but TJ was just able to control the ball on the hurl over their heads and actually turn with the ball, nearly all in one motion. You step back and go, that\u2019s special.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was Kilkenny training sessions which would be illuminated by a flash of skill, that captured the range of weapons in his hurling arsenal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI know Tommy had great battles with him in training and found him a ferocious guy to mark. I remember one day he got a ball and came in off the new stand side in Nowlan Park. It was one of those training sessions where it was fairly helter-skelter.<\/p>\n
\u201cDavid Herity came out to close the angle, which was the right thing to do, and TJ hit the ball with top spin and he put so much top spin, just literally like a tennis player, he put it up and over Herro and into the goal.<\/p>\n
\u201cI just remember going, \u2018Holy Christ like.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cTo do that at full pace with lads coming looking for blood, and to have the composure and to be able to execute that, which is incredibly difficult\u2026that was serious.<\/p>\n
*****<\/p>\n
\n Henry Shefflin and TJ Reid after the 2015 All-Ireland senior club final.<\/p>\n
Source: Cathal Noonan\/INPHO<\/p>\n
Reid doesn\u2019t take to the stage in a one-man attacking show. He learned from Shefflin. His brother Eoin has been a constant scoring threat. He has had Colin Fennelly by his side most of the way, the value of input reinforced by the intelligent positioning for that free against St Thomas. Over the last few years, Adrian Mullen and Eoin Cody have emerged up front.<\/p>\n
That forward conveyor belt is something Hogan marvels at.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re the envy of every club in the country. Most club sides, you\u2019d kill for one forward. For years we had Gorta (Martin Comerford), that kind of marquee county forward on a club side, which counts for so much.<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you have these lads have four county forwards in their club side. They just seem to be able to make forwards and Kilkenny have benefitted for years from that. I don\u2019t know how they do it. Trying to produce a top-class forward, they don\u2019t grow on trees, except down around Knocktopher and Ballyhale.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hogan is well-versed in the club hurling game. He reigned in county and provincial finals with O\u2019Loughlin Gaels, discovered the All-Ireland series was a tough nut to crack, and had ferocious local battles with Ballyhale.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn 2016 (county final), TJ picked up a ball, went straight through the middle and hung a ball to the back of the net. We drove on thankfully that day, it makes it all the sweeter when you\u2019re beating a Shamrocks team that have been dominant.<\/p>\n