The View: Three senior points from four on the travels but the U20 defeat disappoints greatly
By Noel Dundon
Another classic unfolds between Tipperary and Cork in the Munster senior hurling championship – sure where would you see the likes of it? Well. Not on RTE at the moment anyway and despite the thrilling encounter in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday evening, there has been more talk and comment about the fact that the game was only available on gaago and not on terrestrial TV.
That debate is likely to rumble on and on and despite the numerous petitions doing the rounds with people trying to get signatories to pressurise the Association into relenting and televising more games, those petitions are not worth the virtual paper they are written on. A deal has been done you see, and business deals cannot be broken for all sorts of legal reasons. So, it’s a case of suck it up for this season anyhow – it’s fair to say that the GAA has gotten the message loud and clear – we even had Donal Óg Cusack calling it out in very strong terms on the Sunday Game when he went on a well thought out rant against the national broadcaster and the Association. He was a brave man and he deserves enormous credit for his comments.
To be fair to the GAA, staging games on pay-per-view is a very common occurrence nowadays. Boxing, soccer, golf, some rugby, cycling, darts, snooker – they are all on pay-per-view TV – usually Sky. Personally speaking, I would much prefer to support gaago and see those funds being funnelled back into the Association at grassroots level, than to see them lining the pockets of Rupert Murdoch and Sky.
There are many initiatives throughout the country, including Tipperary, which are funded, or part-funded, by Croke Park – that money has to come from somewhere and the biggest infrastructural project to be dealt with by the GAA in the Premier County will be the redevelopment of Ardan Uí Cuinneain, or the Old Stand. That cannot happen without Croke Park’s financial assistance, so if HQ does not have the money, the likes of the Semple job does not happen.
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not for pay-per-view TV when it comes to GAA games, but if it is to be a feature then I would prefer to see it benefiting the Association rather than having the funds channelled away through Sky.
When Moyne Templetuohy man Sean Fogarty was Chairman of the Munster Council in the mid 2000’s – Tipperary’s 8th of 9 provincial Chairmen – and bidding to become President of the GAA, he spoke about the need for the Association to have its own TV channel. Between, hurling, football, handball, camogie, ladies football, rounders and Scór at county, provincial and national level, there would be more than enough material to populate a schedule, he argued. How forward thinking a proposal was that? It would have been revolutionary at the time but unfortunately, it went nowhere. Now, with condensed seasons and all that, we have a cluster of games coming on the same weekends and it is a real mess. Watch this space, because there will be a lot more about this before the season is out.
To the games. Three points from four for Tipp after away trips to Ennis and Cork would have been more than agreeable before a championship ball was pucked. It has been a real rollercoaster and the clash with the Rebels on Saturday evening in splendid sunshine was spectacular. The setting was brilliant, the atmosphere wonderful – eventhough Tipperary supporters were outnumbered about 5:1 – and the hurling was marvellous. Superb score-taking mixed with more than dubious defending, resulted in a scorefest and Tipp survived the cauldron to take a point.
Of the two teams, Tipperary had to be the happier. They have three points from two away games whereas Cork have three points from two home games and must now go to Limerick and Ennis to add to their tally – a tall order indeed. Tipp will have Limerick and Waterford at home and know that one win from those two games, should be good enough to see them into the All-Ireland series, and possibly the Munster Final.
However, we have to cut down on the concession of goals. Too many chances are being coughed up and when you look at the type of chances materialising, they are coming from deep, cutting through and creating the overlaps. To be fair, this is a system malfunction rather than individual error and when this is tidied up – and it needs to be done so immediately – it will be a major step forward for Tipp.
You would have to say that Cork and Clare are both good sides. And yet, despite our generosity when it comes to green flags, they have not beaten Tipperary. Granted Clare were very generous too in that opening round clash, but you would have to be impressed by Tipperary’s scoring exploits. Alan Tynan is a real bonus this campaign as is Gearoid O’Connor, while Mark Kehoe made a huge impression when he came on. It was great to see Seamus Callanan making a return too.
The key to Tipperary success though lies in the middle third where Tynan, Conor Stakelum, Dan McCormack, Seamus Kennedy, Noel McGrath, Ronan Maher and Bryan O’Mara are so important. The worker-bees in that crop cover so much ground and mine the ball for the quarterbacks to supply the attackers further forward – Sean Ryan was showing very well for ball while on, but his touch was slightly off and he will have learned a lot from the Leeside experience.
Thankfully Jason Forde’s hamstring injury is not as bad as initially feared and he could even feature against Limerick on May 21st. That will be a real test of Tipperary and the inside back line of Cathal Barrett, Michael Breen and Johnny Ryan will come under further scrutiny in front of Barry Hogan. They have been going man-for-man in recent games and will likely do the same against Limerick. And, while the spotlight has been on the defence considering the huge scores conceded, pointing the finger at these three would be unfair.
Tipp are in a good place right now and the visit of the All-Ireland champions will be a bumper day out in Semple Stadium. Premier supporters will be required to tog out because you can be guaranteed that Limerick will come in great numbers.
Clare came in great numbers too on Monday evening for the Munster U20 hurling semi-final. And, they went away happy. Tipperary made far too many errors in this game and at the end of the day, Clare bagged three goals to win the match – a match which was far closer than the final scoreline suggests.
A disappointing end to a campaign which never saw Tipperary reaching their potential, many are wondering at the style of play adopted. Still, this group will learn from the experience and despite losing two games out of five, you could see quite a few of these players in a senior set-up in the coming years. Winning does guarantee you senior hurlers and sometimes you can get more senior players from losing underage sides than you might from victorious ones.
It has been a disappointing season for our minor and U20 sides. Better to come in 2024 hopefully.
By Jonathan Cullen Wed 10th May
