A SEASON OF progress?
It depends on the vantage point.
Perhaps on the nuts and bolts front the 2023 season can be marked as a positive for the Dublin and Tipperary hurlers, when painted against their efforts of the year before.
Neither emerged from their provincial group in 2022. Dublin finished fourth in Leinster, only just edged out on scoring difference by Kilkenny and Wexford. Tipperary were rooted to the bottom of the Munster table, a mile off the pace as they lost all four of their encounters.
So in that sense, can they view 2023 as a leap forward? Both bagged third spots in their groups to ensure qualification for the All-Ireland series. The preliminary quarter-final hurdles were surmounted, Tipperary with staggering ease against Offaly as they chalked up 7-38 and Dublin after a sweat against Carlow, ultimately having ten points to spare.
They rocked up in Limerick on Saturday evening but neither were able to obstruct beaten provincial finalists Clare and Galway recuperating, just like they did last year, and setting up repeat All-Ireland semi-final pairings.
Quarter-final placings was as good as it got, the exit door beckoning Dublin and Tipperary. Reaching the last six in the first season for new managers – a satisfactory return?
It’s not as black and white as that.
Micheál Donoghue and Liam Cahill departed with the same sinking feeling on Saturday. They’ve both stockpiled enough managerial experience to understand the demands at this level. Both have lost All-Ireland deciders at the hands of the current fearsome Limerick team – Donoghue in 2018 with Galway and Cahill in 2020 with Waterford.
They have All-Ireland titles to boast about for their CVs – Donoghue with Clarinbridge in 2011 and Galway in 2017, Cahill with Tipperary underage teams on three occasion between 2016 and 2019.
Saturday’s losses are part of a pattern that will force both to take stock. When Tipperary salvaged a draw a month ago in a pulsating tie with Limerick, they were in a buoyant mood. But they squandered a glorious chance to book a Munster final berth when their form slipped against Waterford.
Thrashing Offaly proved misleading given the lack of quality their opponents posed and the eventual two-point defeat on Saturday against Galway concealed the true nature of the game. Galway were more superior than the scoreline suggested, Tipperary’s fightback, capped by John McGrath’s goal, raised their hopes, but as Cahill freely admitted afterwards, his team misfired badly.
After the positive start in defeating Clare in April, Tipperary only won one of their five subsequent games, that victory comes with caveat of being at the expense of the Joe McDonagh Cup finalists. There is an obvious parallel to be drawn with Waterford’s drop-off in form under Cahill as the season unfolded last year.
Bryan O’Mara, Alan Tynan, Eoghan Connolly and Gearoid O’Connor have all showcased their capabilities this season to propose they can be the nucleus of a team. But the failure to land a meaningful punch against Galway will grate, the statistic that a talented full-forward line like Jake Morris, Seamus Callanan and Mark Kehoe were held scoreless on Saturday will also sting.
Dublin’s quarter-final loss was a more sobering exercise. Shipping 5-26 to Clare gets to the crux of the matter. They’d have hard days before. Saturday’s 18-point defeat was not as great as the one they suffered at the hands of Tipperary in 2017, losing by 22 and conceding 6-26, but it bore resemblances to that emphatic dismissal. The gulf in class was evident.
Dublin’s problems were compounded by the fact their talisman Donal Burke was forced off through injury after nine minutes and that Clare attackers like Tony Kelly and Mark Rodgers were in lethal form, contributing 4-15 between them. Clare were on song up front yet Dublin’s defensive woes resulted in huge space being created for the Banner forward line. Dublin only conceded three goals in their five games in Leinster, they leaked five goals in Saturday’s game alone.
It’s a deflating end to a campaign for Dublin. They hit plenty turbulence in the make-up of their panel in the off season but a new team adjusted and they showed their grit in emerging from the Leinster round-robin. They toughed it out to defeat Wexford by two, were game in running Kilkenny to six points and dug out draws against both Antrim and Galway with late scores. But after winning two of their first three championship games, they only won one of their next four.
The slippage in form Dublin experienced was clearly evident. It’s something Tipperary can relate to.
For both Cahill and Donoghue, a first season in a new gig ends on a low note.
And there is a long time to ponder before the 2024 season commences to offer them a chance of correction.