TIPPERARY HAVE BEEN here before. Questions asked, September answers provided.
This is no time for knee-jerk reactions. In 2010, the Premier County was awash with doom and gloom when Tipp fell to a 10-point defeat against Cork in a Munster quarter-final.
Just a few short months later, they were All-Ireland champions.
Better a heavy defeat happened now than during the summer. Sure, a 16-point reverse against Galway exposed some chinks in Tipperary’s armour but now there’s a month to rectify them ahead of the Cork championship opener on 21 May.
Winning back-to-back All-Ireland titles is Tipperary’s main focus. A League crown would have been nice but then again, doesn’t the old saying apply here?
If Tipp are climbing the Hogan Stand steps again in September, you’ll hear it. ‘Sure, nobody cares about the League.’
Galway did, evidently, and more power to them. Their victory yesterday exposed chinks in Tipperary’s armour but they are chinks that can be ironed out.
If you get Tipp’s half-backs turned and running towards their own goal, they’re vulnerable.
Shut down their inside line, and they’re equally so. Both easier said than done but Galway managed both.
Still, there’s a feeling that the Tribesmen may have shown their hand to a degree. Joe Canning at number 11, roving with effect, Daithí Burke at full-back, Adrian Tuohy in the corner.
Those old problem positions in the Galway team, 3 and 6, are filled now. Burke was exceptional and at centre back, Gearoid McInerney hurled up a storm.
Galway have Tipp’s number and they know it. In 2015 and 2016 All-Ireland semi-finals, just a point either way separated the teams, and they drew in last year’s League.
Now, Tipp have a 16-point gulf to make up. Can it be done? Of course, but it will take hard work and plenty of soul-searching, as former Tipperary player Michael Cleary has stated.
Tipp lost the League quarter-final to Clare last year, let’s not forget, and regrouped to win five matches on the spin to finish the season as All-Ireland champions. Tipp didn’t care much about the League then, as they paraded Liam MacCarthy.
Ger Loughnane’s been having his say this morning, putting forward the frankly baffling view that ‘this is not a good Tipp team.’
He’s wrong, because it’s a very good Tipp team. They had an off-day, it happens. It’s certainly happened to Tipperary in recent years but they were All-Ireland champions in 2010 and 2016, and reached finals in 2009, 2011 and 2014.
Five finals in eight years suggest that this is a good Tipp team, albeit one susceptible to the occasional systems failure.
What will have concerned Tipp most is their failure to make headway under aerial ball again, particularly in the half-forward line. It’s an old Achilles heel that flared up again.
Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher’s return will go some way towards alleviating the problem but Tipp had Dan McCormack and Steven O’Brien in the half-forward line yesterday, two men capable of competing under the high ball. Nothing stuck.
With the Maher brothers, Ronan and Pádraic, off-colour, Tipp didn’t have the platform to deliver quality ball inside.
Manager Michael Ryan will hope they’re not as poor again but to single out individuals yesterday is unfair. It was a day when very few, if any, Tipp players could say they played well.
Goalkeeper Darren Gleeson won’t look back on goals two and three with much fondness, while Cathal Barrett and Michael Cahill had their most uncomfortable afternoons in recent memory.
John and Noel McGrath split 4-4 between them in the semi-final victory over Wexford but they weren’t afforded the same space yesterday. Tipp looked flat, too, and decidely fatigued.
Perhaps Wexford was a far more intense and energy-sapping game than Galway’s victory over Limerick at the penultimate stage of the competition.
Tipp will have expended much energy, too, in Division 1A, when results were paramount.
Galway, on the other hand, could go quietly about their business in Division 1B, after defeat to Wexford early on ensured that promotion was a non-runner.
What Ryan has now is a stick to beat his players with, but he’ll hope that Donagh Maher, due to resume light training next week following a recent hamstring injury, can get fit and provide another option at corner back.
The manager needs as many player as possible challenging for starting places, while Seamus Callanan’s broken thumb needs to heal quickly.
Before Sunday, there was a common perception that the only team out there that could beat Tipp was Tipp themselves.
That may still remain the case. The heavy weight of history lies heavily on their shoulders, however.
Speaking to the RTÉ GAA podcast, former Tipp star Michael Cleary admitted that there’s some “soul-searching” in store.
And he admitted: ”We have actually handled success very badly. The early stages of this League would have suggested that this team were handling it way better.
“If you look at all Tipperary teams that have won All-Irelands – there haven’t been a huge amount in the last 30 years – we have all flopped gloriously in subsequent years.
“That is not to say this team is a flop, far from it, but to me sport is littered with the hype and people telling you that you are a great player or team and if you are told often enough you eventually believe it.”
On the flipside, Cleary argued: ”It is a great advance warning for what is coming for the championship. I don’t think it’s anything to do with championship training or anything like that.
“The frightening thing is Galway had more wides than Tipperary. You have to give Galway a lot of credit. It certainly is a wake-up call.”
A reality check at just the right time for Tipperary. It’s time to heed the Gaelic Grounds lessons and prove that they’re not just a good team, but a great one.
RTĖ Sport / SoundCloud
The42 is on Instagram! Tap the button below on your phone to follow us!
