MICHAEL RYAN’S FIRST trip back to Croke Park with Tipperary since September was certainly a happy one.
While the standard of the opposition they faced in Dublin might be questionable, Tipperary showed no signs of rust as they reeled off 1-24 in extremely difficult conditions.
“In fairness, that’s very brave from Ger Cunningham to come with a good young squad,” Ryan said of his opposite number after the game.
“There’s no better place to learn your trade than out there competing with senior players, which we had a lot of today.”
Did he learn much from the blowout victory?
“You’re always learning about your own guys. It was about attitude and that comes through in the hard weather in early season.
“That’s the greatest thing you’re measuring at this time of the seasons, the application. Quality, you’re not going to see a lot of that, but plenty of attitude.”
New captain Paudie Maher gave a devastating display on the half-back line, knocking over two points on his way to pick up man-of-the-match, but it was the performances of the fringe players that really impressed their manager.
“In fairness to Paudie, he always sets a very good level for himself and the boys matched that insofar as they can,” he said.
“These are good players who are on the panel with us last year and some of them longer than that. Good guys who are chomping at the bit to get opportunities.”
Thurles Sarsfields forward Aidan McCormack was highly impressive, posting 0-5 from play, while Jason Forde (1-3 from play) and defender Donagh Maher did their chances no harm.
“I’m sure they’d prefer it in the height of summer but this is where you start and those opportunities have to be taken too.
“It was heartening to see Aidan getting five points, that was a good contribution.
“It was hard to get the ball to stick and he was getting around as well, it was a really good day for Aidan. Quite a few of the forwards were struggling.”
While Seamus Callanan converted eight frees, Eoghan O’Donnell had the measure of him from open play, making the scoring contributions of McCormack and Forde even more welcome.
Ryan continued: “In fairness to the Dublin backs, I thought they were very good and the number three seemed to catch a lot of the ball that came in to him. So I’m sure we’ll see a lot of those guys in 2017.”
Tipperary are bidding to retain the All-Ireland for the first time since 1965, but Ryan says a strong league campaign is their only focus at this point.
“There’s a lot of terms being put out there, back-to-back and this stuff. But we’ve got to take the games as they come this year and the year has just kicked off.
“Only two of our panel (Callanan and Darren Gleeson) of 41 have National League medals so it’s a great target for us and we won’t look beyond it. It’s the only competition we’re in right now and we’ll do the bets we can in it.
“Every year we set out our target to get to the quarter-final and we get there but last year we fell right at it. So we’ll try to build on it. This is only day one of five you have to establish yourself in.”
On the injury front, Ryan added that Donagh Maher picked up a knock to his head, while John O’Keeffe rolled his ankle.
“None are too serious but next Sunday will probably come too soon.”
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
