Tipperary Hurling Tipperary GAA Premierview

Born : 1915 Died : 1988



Tipp championship career : 1936-1953



Club : Thurles Kickhams & Thurles Sarsfields



Honours :



5 All-Ireland Senior Hurling Medals – 1937, ’45, ’49, ’50, ’51.



6 Munster Senior Hurling Medals – 1937, ’41, ’45, ’49, ’50, ’51.



2 National League Medals – 1950, ’52.



1 All-Ireland Minor Hurling Medal – 1933



1 Munster Minor Hurling Medal – 1933.



7 Railway Cup Medals – 1942, ’43, ’44, ‘45, ’46, ’48, ’50.



7 County Senior Medals - 1938, ’39, ’42, ’44, ’45, ’46, ’52 (Capt.).



8 Mid Tipp Medals - 1938, ’39, ’42, ’44, ’45, ’46, ’50, ’52 (Capt.).



2 County Minor Medals – 1932, ’33.



1 Oireachtas Medal - 1949



Left-Half-Back on Tipperary Team of the Millenium – 1999.



All-Time All-Star Award Winner - 1986





Tommy Doyle began his hurling career with Thurles Kickhams and won a Mid Tipp junior medal in 1934. He had already won an All-Ireland minor medal in the centre-forward position when Tipp beat Galway in the final of 1933. Having played with the Junior with the county in 1935 Tommy became involved with the senior team during the 1936-37 National League campaign. His championship debut came in the 1937 Munster semi-final against Cork in Thurles, and in his second game he collected a Munster championship medal when Tipp surprised a great Limerick team in the Munster Final in Cork. With Tommy playing at left-half-forward and scoring two points, Tipp romped to All-Ireland victory against Kilkenny in Killarney. Tommy was part of the two Tipp teams of 1938, and ’41 who for differing reasons were denied a crack at the All-Ireland title. It is generally felt in Tipperary that 1938 would have ceratinly seen Tipp retained their title, but it was in 1941 that Tommy had the consolation of picking up a provincial medal, this time in the position most usually associated with him – left-half-back.

Despite playing in defence in three of the next four seasons, it was at centre-forward that Tommy won his second All-Ireland Medal in 1945 when again Kilkenny were the victims again. Over the next three years with Tommy moving between defence, attack and midfield Tipp made little progress in Munster, and in 1949 at 34 years old Tommy considered retirement. The encumbant left-half-back on the Tipperary team was Moycarkey’s Tommy Purcell, but he was ill, fatally so as it turned out, and the county selectors turned to Tommy Doyle to assume the unenviable task of curbing Cork’s major danger-man Christy Ring. Even though Tommy had not been involved with Tipp during their championship preparations, having the necessary physical conditioning for the match was of little bother to Tommy as he such an almost fanatical approach to physical fitness that he trained daily – even on his honeymoon - a discipline probably developed during a very promising amateur boxing career during the early ‘30s.



In one of the classic Munster championship confrontations Tommy had the better of things with Ring over the 150 minutes of the two g ames, with Ring’s only score being a point scored when he moved off Tommy Doyle briefly. After having played for 12 seasons for Tipp and winning “only” 2 All-Ireland Medals, Tommy remarkably added 3 more medals in the next 3 years. He won League medals in 1950, and ’52, and in the latter year he captained Thurles Sarsfields to win the Dan Breen Cup - his seventh county medal - with the club he had joined from the Kickhams 14 years previously.



Tommy had the distinction of captaining Tipp in 1953, but in his last season as an inter-county player he was unlucky to lose both the National League Final and the Munster Final to Cork. Tommy finished his career with 5 All-Ireland senior hurling medals and had the distinction of winning the medals in three different decades. He was a huge star in his time, and would generally rank in the top 5 or 6 left-half-backs to have played the game. Tommy received the All-time All-Star award in 1986, an award for players who would have been certain All-Stars had the award scheme been around in their time. The All-Star award scheme was to be the scene of the final chapter of Tommy’s life in 1988 when he passed away at the awards presentation.

Tommy’s autobiography was published in 1955.