In Tipperary, hurling is a religion, and the good field in Thurles is the ultimate altar. This Sunday, Borris-Ileigh go into their first county final in 29 years, but with a holy presence in their ranks.
Wearing maroon and white, with ash in hand, will be a man of the cloth. The hurler in question, much like the 1992 Joe Pesci movie, is 'My Cousin Vinny'.
We grew up together in Borris, played on the same teams, watched the same movies, and generally did the same things.
But life takes its own course. In 2015, Stapleton was ordained as a priest and is now a priest in Bohernanave Church in Thurles.
The 35-year-old says mass just a stone's throw from Semple Stadium, which houses the Thurles Sarsfields clubhouse. As it happens, that is both the venue and opposition in this Sunday's decider.
These days, a collection of nicknames follows him around - Padre, Fr Media, and so on - but Fr Vincent Stapleton is what he prefers to by.
A gent off the field, but a man who might shred your shins on it if you tried him out.
"Unfortunately, in my playing career, I’ve had several yellow cards and one or two reds as well," he smiles.
"And I always had a bad temper growing up and I still have to monitor that. So, I sometimes react on the pitch and sometimes things happen that I’m not proud of.
"Two weeks after being ordained a priest I went to a match in Dolla and I was standing on the sidelines an things were not going Borris-Ileigh’s way, and I felt that the ref was contributing to that, so I did something that’s customary in our family: I gave him a piece of my mind.
"I was tapped on the shoulder by the county secretary who I would be friendly with, Tim Floyd, who’s a great hurling man, and he said 'someone in your station can’t be carrying on like that anymore' and, in a sense, he’s right."
Vincent had been a teacher in Templederry for a number of years before answering the call. To his mind, that meant giving up his other big passion: hurling.
"I felt actually I was drawing a line in my hurling career," he says. "The stories of Maynooth were, like we were told that, the first month your mobile phones are gone, you’re not going to have any contact with the outside world.
"You ease into the seminary life. I said to the fella who’s in charge of me, the director of formation, Fr Paul... I said, ‘I probably will have to give up the hurling now, I can’t be going up and down’.
"He said: ‘Absolutely not, he said you need to keep as normal as possible.’
"They saw hurling as an outlet for me to keep me normal, which I think it has helped to a certain extent to be in connection with the hurling team. They don’t treat you with any airs or graces, they keep you grounded and give you the same treatment as everybody else.
"I arrived back down then for a hurling match. We were playing in the Championship against Lorrha, I was just released from a retreat to go and play the game.
"I arrived in and didn’t actually play too bad, got a point. I think we won by about five or six points, even though it was tight with ten minutes to go.
"(Ex-Tipperary goalkeeper) Ken Hogan came into the dressing room afterwards. He did the usual spiel; they were knocked out of the championship, ‘congratulations, best of luck’.
"Then he said, ‘and congratulations to your man who went off and joined the priesthood, it was a brave thing to do in this day and age’.
"My own team kind of had a massive round of applause and I got none of the slagging that I thought of.
"It made me think afterwards, I should have trusted them a bit more and shared a bit more with them, that I expected it to be all negative, and actually it has been: I got great support out of the parish at home and the club on the journey, so, thanks be to God for that."
Sars are chasing a four-in-a-row on Sunday, so the temptation is to ask Vincent if he will be praying for divine intervention.
As we've seen so many times in Hollywood films about American sports, will he ask him team-mates to take a knee on Sunday before the Tipperary county final?
"In short, no, because I know where I’d be told to go if I did," he smiles. "Even on the Borris-Ileigh team, there’s still probably a great percentage who are going to mass, but there’s no guarantee that they’re all practising Catholics, and the ones who aren’t shouldn’t have to endure a mass probably beforehand.
"People ask are you praying hard for a win, I find it a hard question to answer. I don’t think God is up there wearing maroon and white or blue and white. I think he does honour the ones who work hard with success."
Download the brand new OffTheBall App in the Play Store & App Store right now! We've got you covered!
Subscribe to OffTheBall's YouTube channel for more videos, like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter for the latest sporting news and content.
