Brendan Cummins (born 11 May 1975) is an Irish hurler and hurling coach who played as a goalkeeper for the Tipperary senior team.
Cummins represented the Munster inter-provincial team at various times throughout his career, winning two Railway Cup medals in 2000 and as captain in 2001.
[1][2] His father, John Cummins, enjoyed a lengthy career as a Gaelic footballer and as a coach at various levels with Tipperary.
[3][failed verification] He has been repeatedly voted onto teams made up of the sport's greats, and collected five All-Star awards during his career.
He made his debut with the Tipperary hurlers in a one-point National Hurling League victory over Waterford on 14 November 1993.
His first silverware in the top flight came in April 1994, when the Tipperary senior football team won the delayed final of the McGrath Cup.
The retirement of Ken Hogan as first-choice goalkeeper on the Tipp senior hurling team in 1993 meant that the door was now open for a new player to join the starting fifteen.
John Leahy missed a goal chance in the last minute while another Tipp point was controversially ruled wide.
In spite of a lack of championship success, Cummins was recognised as the top goalkeeper of the year in 2000 and duly collected his first All-Star award.
Fergal Healy hit the post twice, however, his goal, Galway's second, cut the deficit to one point with just nine minutes left in the game.
Following Tipp's drawn game with Limerick in the opening round of the championship, Cummins was sensationally dropped by manager Babs Keating in favour of his understudy Gerry Kennedy.
[15] Cummins remained sidelined for all subsequent games, and saw Tipp exit the championship with a defeat by Wexford in the All-Ireland quarter-final.
I wanted Tipp to beat Limerick and what I’d normally do with a young fella is make sure he was ready for the game, for the rest of the year, I just trained harder.
Tipperary announced their return to the big time in 2008 by remaining undefeated in the National League before meeting Galway in the final.
In an exciting game Tipp emerged victorious by 3–18 to 3-16 and Cummins collected his third National League medal on the field of play.
[18] Cummins collected his second Munster medal that day, however, Tipperary were subsequently defeated in a tense All-Ireland semi-final by Waterford on a scoreline of 1–20 to 1–18.
[20] After a six-week lay-off and a facile semi-final win over Limerick, Tipperary qualified for an All-Ireland final meeting with Kilkenny.
[21] After surrendering their Munster title to Cork, Tipperary regrouped in the qualifiers and reached a second successive All-Ireland decider.
He subsequently completed a hat-trick of goals and Tipperary had a fourth by Noel McGrath to deny Kilkenny's drive-for-five and secure a remarkable and convincing 4–17 to 1–18 victory.
Munster had a rather flattering 1–21 to 1–15 victory, however, Cummins had the distinction of lifting the Railway Cup on behalf of his province while also collecting a second consecutive winners’ medal.
[35] Cummins has also enjoyed success in the famous Poc Fada competition held annually in the Cooley Mountains.
[36] In January 2014, Cummins was unveiled as the new goalkeeping coach for the Kerry hurling team, working under Tipperary native Eamonn Kelly .
In May 2014, it was announced that Cummins would join RTÉ's team of GAA analysts on radio and television, starting with the 2014 championships.