FORMER TIPPERARY MINOR and U21 boss William Maher believes the county are facing a hurling identity crisis after miserable start to the 2022 championship which has seen defeats to Waterford and Clare at the start of the Munster round-robin series.
Tipperary face an uphill struggle if they are to prolong their championship campaign after an emphatic defeat at the hands of Clare on Sunday.
On their home path, Tipperary struggled hugely and Maher, who was a candidate to become senior boss last year, spoke of the sadness and frustration he felt watching the game.
“There was a lot of hope after Tipp’s performance in Waterford but I suppose on reflection, we look at Waterford were under pressure having won the league (game) by ten points,” said Maher, speaking on Tipp FM’s Extra Time programme last night.
“We could have won the match last week but I think that they were the green shoots that we all hoped to see and they didn’t materialise in any shape or form. I think Clare (were) very well organised, they looked like they knew what they were doing. Being at the match, I’ve never been as sad coming out of Semple Stadium.
“I had that frustration in the Old Stand, I’ve never felt it. I hear about ’84 and what happened as regards Tipperary supporters, I was only five at the time, but at the same time, I imagine it was something similar. We weren’t able to get to the pitch of anything. We have really good players and if we were set up properly and coached like that to play a modern game, I think there’d maybe be less despair and things like (Sunday) wouldn’t happen.”
Maher believes Tipperary are finding it difficult to cope with the modern evolution in hurling and pinpointed their puckout strategy as a major area of concern.
“The game has moved, we have to move with it. I think we’re struggling as a county, as regards to play the game that’s being played now. We’re harking for days of 2009, ’10, that man-to-man hurling, it’s gone, it’s over.
“An interesting stat for me, when we did go long I think we turned over two goals in the first half. We won 33% of the balls that went long from our puckouts. So that’s telling me the long game is not working. We’ve no short game, we’ve no medium puckout and we’ve no long game. We’ve kind of ended up between all stools which is the big worry. Again knowing the games that were coming from a long way out six months ago, it’s baffling that we’d no puckout at all.
“We were constantly getting caught in traffic. We were so open, we were so far away from our goal in the Killinan End in the first half, that the three on two that was scored by Peter Duggan, Shane O’Donnell even stopped running, he didn’t have to support.
“Huge questions to ask. We were caught in the middle of the field, our shooting was off. To me, the biggest thing was just that lack of real pace within our team. Throughout the team we had no answers to what Clare were providing. All in all, a really worrying day for Tipperary.”
Ballingarry native Maher, the 2012 All-Ireland minor winning manager of Tipperary, agreed that the identity search is something that extends to other counties as setups try to bridge the gap at present to Limerick.
The flexibility to move players around the pitch to different positions was something he highlighted.
“You look at a lot of counties and they’re struggling to find their own identity. When I spoke to the Tipp county board about the role six months ago, that was something that I wanted to examine or talk through. We have to find our way, we have to find the Tipperary way, we have to find what suits us, our players.
“Even from a resource perspective, you look at Clare, John Conlon centre-back, we’d probably never do that, move a player from centre-forward to centre-back, in recognising his abilities and how he fits in this modern game.
“Similarly with Limerick, that interchangeability between Kyle Hayes, Cian Lynch midfield, centre-forward, Barry Nash from wing-forward to wing-back to corner-back. Like, we don’t have that interchangeability. We’re caught in this void at the moment of not knowing who we are or what we’re trying to do.
“Look there’s a lot of honest people involved in that setup and they’re trying to do the right thing but until we come up with a formula to find a Tipperary way, we’re not going to go anywhere.”
Maher also questioned the issue of player development in Tipperary in bringing through successful underage hurlers.
“I think Liam Cahill referenced it after Waterford beat Tipp last year, that there was issues. He was closer even than I was at the coalface of U20 having been the manager for two successful teams. We don’t know who the next man up is, which is a crazy situation. Cathal O’Neill for Limerick, the two Dalys in Waterford, the Cork conveyor belt of guys that we would have beaten U20, U21 over the last couple of years and they seem to be getting these players through.
“Like Conor Bowe, I know it’s last week and he subsequently got injured, again he’s three or four years out of U21, having I think five man-of-the-match (awards) in eight matches, but he wasn’t on our team and squad, which is crazy. Maybe we’ve to look at our system and look seriously at it and see what we can do. The problems are there and trying to find solutions, that’s what we need to do now.”
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