"My Head Was Gone" - Rhys Shelly Reveals Unusual Preparations For All-Ireland Final

Rhys Shelly made himself a Tipperary hero on Sunday, with a superb showing as they stunned Cork and claimed All-Ireland glory.

Cork were widely fancied going into the game and led by six at the break, but Tipp stunned the Rebels with a monumental second half performance to ultimately run out 15-point winners.

Shelly played a big role in that triumph.

The Moycarkey-Borris man not only saved a late penalty from Conor Lehane but even became the first goalkeeper ever to score a point from open play in an All-Ireland hurling final.

It was a monumental day for Shelly and Tipp, and he was named in the Sunday Game team of the year for his showings between the sticks this summer.

All-Ireland glory will take some time to sink in for the shot-stopper. However, judging by his chilled out preparations for the final, he will likely take it in his stride.

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Rhys Shelly spoke to Tipperary's Tipp FM on Monday morning, with Liam MacCarthy in hand after one of the county's greatest hurling days on Sunday.

Shelly was caught off guard by interviewer Paul Carroll, when Carroll asked him about a rumour that he had spent all of Saturday playing FIFA in the leadup to the final.

"The day before is probably the worst for me, the waiting around," Shelly said, before Carroll jumped in and revealed his knowledge of the pre-match FIFA session.

"Jaysis, that's after getting around quick!" Shelly joked.

I was playing Ultimate Team, the head was kind of gone! I don't know if it was good prep...

It harked back to the famous story of Andrea Pirlo's preparation for the 2006 World Cup final.

The iconic Italian midfielder revealed in his autobiography that he had spent the entire afternoon of July 9th 2006 playing PlayStation in his hotel room, before winning the World Cup that evening.

I spent the afternoon of Sunday, 9 July 2006 in Berlin sleeping and playing the PlayStation. In the evening, I went out and won the World Cup.

Evidently, it worked for Shelly, who put in a brilliant performance as Tipperary won their 29th All-Ireland title.

"It's still hard to believe that we do have it, to be honest," Shelly admitted as he took a long look at the Liam MacCarthy cup.

Talking over there, I said the homecoming will help it settle in. It means everything.

Someone said it to me, doing all the walks beforehand and stuff...every time it cut to me, I was just smiling.

Just enjoy it...there's no point getting too bogged down in things - it's hurling. We're amateurs at the end of the day, if you don't enjoy it, there's no point playing it.

Just enjoying every minute of it.

A brilliant perspective from a new All-Ireland winner.