As the county continues to reflect on the All Ireland defeat much speculation centres on the intentions of manager, Eamon O’Shea. Will he go or will he stay? A county holds its breath because there’s certainly no queue lining up behind him.
Elsewhere the club scene is down to the last sixteen after the weekend’s action. Repeat pairings have highlighted major flaws in the system.
The aftermath of that All Ireland continues to rumble on like distant thunder. We have a winter of reflection ahead now before a new season is unveiled. Who will lead Tipperary into the new dawn is a question being posed by many.
If Eamon O’Shea announced his intention to continue on for 2015 I’ve no doubt there would be a collective sigh of relief, not least from the County Board. There is no obvious replacement available and the hope all round appears to be that the manager will view the job as unfinished business. From O’Shea’s perspective it can’t be an easy call. Apart from work and family commitments there’s the little issue of around four hours driving each night to training. The All Ireland replay didn’t help matters by extending the season a further three weeks. In the circumstances it would be understandable if he decided to call time on it all but most people – the players especially – will be hoping for a different outcome. That player support hopefully will be a deciding factor because O’Shea has earned remarkable loyalty from the hurlers. We await an announcement.
Meanwhile the post mortems on the All Ireland defeat have been extensive and at this stage one’s appetite for more dissection is waning. It’s natural to look for tactical reasons why we lost out once again to Kilkenny but ultimately it all comes down to the harsh reality that we weren’t good enough. Kilkenny have more depth in their panel and for whatever reason we can’t engender the same levels of passionate intensity as our neighbours.
There’s a popular theme going around that Kilkenny are now doing to Tipperary what we did to them in the sixties. I’m afraid it doesn’t stand up to analysis; what Kilkenny are doing at the moment is unprecedented. The stats are scary. In Brian Cody’s fifteen year term as manager he faced Tipperary in nine championship ties, winning seven, losing one and drawing one. By contrast the counties only met twice in the championship in the sixties, sharing an All Ireland apiece in ’64 and ’67.
Of course if you factor in the fifties then the Tipperary dominance becomes more pronounced especially when you factor in league results, a specialist area for Tipp at the time. Anyway in the gloomy aftermath of the All Ireland defeat it’s probably no harm to focus a little on some of the obvious positives from the season. We found a new goalie in Darren Gleeson, a worthy successor to Brendan Cummins. We also found two defenders in Cathal Barrett and James Barry. We saw Shane McGrath reinvent his inter-county career and we witnessed Seamie Callanan finally deliver on his immense promise. John O’Dwyer too made his mark. Put together that’s not a bad dividend from one season.
The retirements that are likely to be announced will mostly come from players who had become peripheral and got either minimal or no play-time this year. It was a case of some staying on too long when retirement would have been more advisable. When you factor in everything, the team is in a better place now than it was twelve or twenty-four months ago. Grooming a few more players will be important in the next six months or so and in that regard the continuity that O’Shea could provide would be important.
In the meantime the spotlight switches to the local scene where we had plenty of activity last weekend including the three remaining divisional deciders. (Incidentally putting all three on at the same time underlines the lack of co-ordination within Tipperary GAA. Did the three boards not think of consulting in order to facilitate the public?).
I opted for the Mid final and, from reports, appear to have picked the best of the three. It was certainly a sturdy contest in greasy conditions at Holycross. Fancied Drom got away to a flier but were scrambling at the end as Upperchurch just missed out on the draw, which their efforts deserved.
It was certainly an exciting one with plenty of body hits exchanged as these neighbours tore into each other. That opening ten minutes were worrying for the ‘Church as Callanan hit a goal and the favourites went seven-up. Pat Shortt was untypically off-target on three early frees to compound the problems for the challengers. But they’ve shown steady nerve all year and gradually worked their way back into this one, Owen Shortt eventually kicking in a goal after goalie, Damien Young, had made a few fine saves. Drom’s lead was a mere two points at half time.
Upperchurch had to play catch-up all day but twice they got level on Paudie Greene frees near the end – he’d taken over from Pat Shortt after those early misses. Again in this period Damien Young stood between the ‘Church and a first Mid title with some marvellous reflex saves. It all came down to a cliff-hanger. Into injury time and Kevin Butler hit a crucial lead point for Drom. Then an error by the goalie gave Callanan a ‘65’ to make it two-up before one last raid by the Church saw a James Barry effort blocked before Paul Ryan drove over – too little too late.
It was a luckless day for the ‘Church who deserved better. Barry was outstanding at centre back as they opted not to send him policing Callanan, a job very capably performed by Andy Kinane. In the end it was Drom who had to send Callanan out marking Barry which sums up how things went at that end of the pitch.
Damien Young got man of the match for his shot-stopping for Drom and that too highlights the drift of the day. Drom were pushed to the limit in this one and just about survived. David Collins took some lovely first half points. It’s disappointing for the ‘Church who now fail to make the last sixteen because of that narrow score deferential with Killenaule. I’d rate them better than many of those still in the championship. Michael Bevans has done an impressive job.
In the South Killenaule surrendered their crown to Mullinahone – not enough fizz, it seems, without ‘Bubbles’. The West saw Eire Og endorse last year’s achievement against Clonoulty, pulling away strongly in the final quarter. It’s the club’s first back-to-back since their greatest era in the far-off forties.
The draw for the last sixteen has thrown up some unfortunate pairings with repeats of the Mid and West deciders pencilled in for this coming weekend. The structures passed by the Board stipulated an open draw for these fixtures and nobody seems to have anticipated this outcome. It’s a major flaw in the system and surely should have been rectified.
There’s no doubt that the pick of the fixtures this weekend is the clash of Drom and Sarsfields, two of the championship front runners. They met earlier in the Mid when Drom delivered an emphatic result. An injury doubt surrounding Mickey Cahill is bad news for the Blues who were motoring nicely this season until they crashed to Drom in that earlier game. This one should be a championship highlight with the winners well placed to kick on for county honours. Sars’ will be slightly fancied but I wouldn’t be putting my house on it.
By Jonathan Cullen Thu 9th Oct
