FOR THE players on the losing end of an All-Ireland final, the club championship can be a sort of refuge. At least that’s what Tipperary goalkeeper Brendan Cummins thought until, a week after losing the All-Ireland final to Kilkenny, he went out with his club Ballybacon-Grange and lost to Portroe. All Cummins has to look forward to now is 2010.

The hope, naturally, is that Tipperary can land that All-Ireland title. But a few weeks on, Cummins still has no hard feelings about the result, nor is he taking for anything for granted – including that he’ll be even part of the Tipperary panel next year.

“Like every other member of the panel I suppose you would be waiting for a phone call,” he says, only half joking. “When the final whistle blew it was disappointing but having looked back at it since, we don’t want to be the gallant loser.

“The reality is we played as well as we can. Fair play to Kilkenny, no excuses. We have another bit of experience in the tank now, though the clocks are zero for 2010. You get no head start just because you were in the final.”

Tipperary were widely praised for the way they took their defeat to Kilkenny, particularly after the highly contentious penalty which turned the game irretrievably in Kilkenny’s favour.

“We put ourselves in a position to win and then after that, things didn’t really go our way. But, on the whole, we are not going to use excuses, the penalty or whatever. .

“PJ Ryan had a fantastic game, we can blame him. We can blame Henry Shefflin for hitting the frees over the bar. . . We piled everything we had into it, including the kitchen sink. There was only a minute they got their legs on us and they got the two goals in that minute – that’s the difference I suppose between experience and trying to get to that level.

“Every player did everything they could and when we sat down in the dressingroom after the game there was no one had their head on the floor. We could all look at each other in the eye.

“Certainly we all went to bed that night maybe the worse for wear but you could close your eyes and say ‘well I did everything for Tipperary that day’.”

There was no blame either being placed on Benny Dunne, who got himself sent off in the heat of battle: “We have a great family attitude and spirit inside in the Tipperary camp,” added Cummins. “That’s one thing Liam Sheedy has nurtured and grown in us since he came in. It’s all for one and one for all. When Benny got sent off we all wanted to do it for him after that . . .”

Meanwhile, Dublin footballer Barry Cahill is hopeful Shane Ryan and Conal Keaney will not attempt to balance two codes or defect to intercounty hurling in 2010. Dublin hurling manager Anthony Daly recently stated he would welcome both men in his squad.

“It would be very difficult these days,” said Cahill. “To try and win the All-Ireland, it is pretty much 24-seven for eight or nine months of the year. If you are involved in another sport and missing training sessions I don’t think you would be up to the same standard as if you were concentrating on one. They would be a big loss . . . . I’d still be hopeful that the two of them will play for the footballers next year.”

Elsewhere, former All-Ireland-winning midfielder Seán Ó Dómhnaill and former All Star Tom Naughton are poised to become key members of Joe Kernan’s backroom team for 2010 in Galway. The two are to be put forward for ratification in the coming days.