AHEAD OF HIS side’s All-Ireland SHC semi-final with old rivals Cork this Sunday, Tipperary boss Eamon O’Shea is full of praise for Séamus Callanan and how he has adapted his game to fit his manager’s vision for the county.
However, it is not something the 25-year old started working on this year, with O’Shea believing his work-rate and adaptability over the past year and a half has been exemplary, even more so as the Drom-Inch forward has had to battle some inconsistent performances in that time.
“He’s been good and he has become the player, it’s very important for a player that he fits into the system. He has to score but he also has to work hard on all the things that you would expect any forward to do.
“Our forwards are trying to work really hard to contribute to the whole system and I think he does that. He has been really good this year at that. I know he has scored a lot and worked hard for us when we were struggling in the league.
“But he has been working towards this for the last 18 months. I know there was a hiccup or two last year but he has been working towards this for the last while.
“Seamus was outstanding for us in 2009 and 2010. Consistency is what you are looking for from a really top player, consistency over a range of games where you make a judgement over a period of time.
“What he has brought to his game is consistency and on any given day you would expect him to play well.
“He was a young player in 2008, 2009 & 2010, all young players have their ups and downs, what he is looking at now is more consistency in his game and that’s good for him.”
However, O’Shea – who has been in charge of the Tipperary hurlers since succeeding Declan Ryan in 2012 – doesn’t put too much stock in the argument that Callanan’s emergence as a key cog in the Premier machine was crucial with Eoin Kelly not being as prominent.
Anyone who scores – and Callanan has 5-44 in his last five games – is good enough for O’Shea.
“I never worry too much about who is scoring the goals or who is at the end of them.
“To me the structure is important and the six forwards, I am not trying to downplay the importance of having a marquee forward but the importance is trying to understand what we are doing here in terms of the team and the movement of the ball.
“Whoever puts it in the net is irrelevant to me, we would never show on video the man scoring the goal, it’s irrelevant. Somebody has to be on the end of it and he is the last man there.
“From the point of view of the ability of the player himself, I am really happy that he is showing it.”
