John O’Keeffe

John O’Keeffe (born 17 November 1988) made his senior championship debut for Clonoulty–Rossmore in 2004 as a 16 year old. He quickly became a mainstay at wing back before he first came to prominence on the inter-county scene as a member of the Tipperary minor hurling team. He enjoyed much success in this grade as Tipperary reached the All-Ireland decider via the “back-door” in 2006. Three-in-a-row hopefuls and Joe Canning led Galway provided the opposition, however, Tipp powered to 2–18 to 2–7 victory.

O’Keeffe subsequently joined the Tipperary under-21 team. He won a Munster medal in this grade in his debut season in 2008 following a controversial one-point defeat of Clare in the Munster Final. Tipp later reached the All-Ireland, however, O’Keeffe’s side were defeated by Kilkenny.

In 2011 O’Keeffe made his senior debut for Tipp in a National Hurling League game against Waterford. His first championship start came later that year against Cork.  A 7-19 to 0-19 trouncing of Waterford in the subsequent provincial decider gave O’Keeffe his first Munster medal. For the third successive year, Tipperary faced off against Kilkenny in the All-Ireland final. Kilkenny started quickly and never surrendered the lead in the 2-17 to 1-16 victory.

John went on to win further Munster medal in 2012 and 2016 and was an important panel member in 2016 and Tipperary regained Liam McCarthy for the first time since 2010. John stepped away from the Tipperary panel following the 2017 season.

Throughout all this time and ever since, John has been a consistently brilliant presence in the Clonoulty Rossmore half back line and continues to lead the team from centre back to this day. After suffering County Final defeats in 2010 and 2011, John got his hands on the ‘Holy Grail’ in 2018 as he captained his club to County Championship success following a brilliant win over favourites Nenagh. His display at centre back will live long in the memory.