It was a league win that came at a cost. Kieran Bergin’s ankle injury adds another name to our casualty list and Seamus Callanan’s red card creates a controversy that we could have done without.
Otherwise the team heads off to a training camp in sunny Spain next Monday with the focus firmly trained on that upcoming league semi-final in three weeks time against resurgent Waterford. In the meantime our club championship kicks off this coming weekend.
The times are busy then for these players, a theme addressed by Eamon O’Shea in his post-match comments. The manager was unusually curt in his remarks and one sensed that he was battling to restrain his annoyance. The hectic league schedule was one topic but refereeing issues were obviously part of the agenda too.
Refereeing matters certainly featured prominently in every conversation exiting O’Connor Park on Sunday last. Callanan’s red card early in the second half came as a shock to followers and viewing the incident on TV that night only served to confirm our suspicions that a major injustice had been done. Thankfully there was at least one camera present to capture the incident and that will obviously be a major plank now in the appeal against that card.
The referee can be excused in the Callanan incident on the basis that he relied on evidence from his umpires but I’m afraid no such exoneration exists for many other decisions. It all reached laughable proportions at one stage during the second half when an Offaly man fell over a team mate and was immediately awarded a free.
Cathal Barrett’s double-yellow is being appealed also. The first yellow he got was a ridiculous decision but it was part of a trend. Astonishingly a very crude chop down on Brendan Maher’s hand near the end of the match only merited a yellow card. Inconsistency was part of the pattern too.
There is a larger issue here which the authorities surely need to address. Sunday’s referee didn’t officiate at any division 1A games and then suddenly he’s parachuted into a league quarter-final. Clearly he was out of his depth and Tipperary were the ones on the receiving end.
The Tipperary manager makes a more general point too about players like Callanan being targeted. At Pairc Ui Rinn the previous Sunday Callanan was the victim of a dangerous flick back by a Cork defender. The referee immediately reached for his pocket but instantly realised he had already issued a card to the Cork player so no further action was taken. Set that against what happened last Sunday and you can see the level of injustice.
Incidentally on a wider refereeing issue the Tipperary football manager, Peter Creedon, served a one-match sideline ban because of his comments about the referee in the Tipp/Armagh game at the start of the football league. Curiously that referee was then ‘rewarded’ with the All Ireland club football final. And here’s another interesting point: other managers, notably Derry’s Brian McIver, have been fiercely critical of individual referees and, to my knowledge, have not been taken to task. Peter Creedon, it seems, was made an example, one that hasn’t been followed.
Anyway back to last Sunday’s game at Tullamore. Conditions were bad and it was never going to be the type of free-flowing exhibition we enjoyed the previous week at Cork. The first half went smoothly enough for Tipperary. Callanan rifled in that goal from an acute angle and the run of points was enough to take us well clear by the interval.
There’s often a danger with the wind behind you that you shoot a lot of wides but Tipperary was economical hitting some fine scores from distance, Kieran Bergin getting three, Brendan Maher chipping in with a pair and Callanan very much in the groove too. At the other end Offaly hit just two points from open play, though Darragh Egan needed to be alert to keep out an Emmet Nolan drive early in the half.
The sending off early in the second half changed the mood music and I’d suggest it was the reaction of the Tipperary players here which pleased O’Shea most. With matters going against the team, and Offaly not being shy in the challenges, we needed players to stand up to the physical demands of the day. They certainly rose to that challenge and will have been very pleased not to concede a major score at the end when we were down to just thirteen players.
It was a messy second half but Tipperary had done enough in the first period and what they had they mostly held. Shane McGrath added considerably to the midfield effort when he replaced Bergin and even players like ‘Bonner’ Maher who wasn’t hurling well still put in a major work shift. The absence of ‘Bubbles’ was certainly felt in attack.
So, attention now shifts to the league semi-final on April 19 at a ‘cat-free’ Nowlan Park. Waterford has been the surprise package of the league thus far and on present form will be tough opponents. Hopefully we’ll have a fuller hand in three weeks time.
In the meantime our domestic championship kicks off this coming weekend with a number of games planned – see fixture list. Another highlight item to watch for this Easter weekend is the All Ireland Colleges final on Saturday evening at 5pm at the Stadium. Adding spice to that event is the Tipp/Kilkenny flavour as Thurles CBS face off against St. Kieran’s College, Kilkenny.
Kieran’s are defending champions and chase a remarkable 20th title. By contrast Thurles seek their second following the class of 2009, which was a star-studded one that included present Tipperary panelists such as James Barry, Denis Maher and David Butler. John O’Neill was a key player on that team too.
Thurles go in as underdogs against a highly-rated Kilkenny outfit, one that retains a sizeable section of last year’s successful panel. Yet this Thurles side has shown remarkable resilience; they may be more understated than the ’09 side but as a unit they’ve shown admirable resolve in winning the Harty Cup. They may be outsiders then but I’m confident this Thurles unit will give it everything. They deserve our best wishes and, more importantly, loud vocal support.
One man who certainly gave it everything during a distinguished career is the retiring Henry Shefflin, recipient of many well-deserved eulogies this past week. In Tipperary we have some painful memories of the man – I still find that ’09 match-turning penalty difficult to watch. However, true hurling fans everywhere generously acknowledge what was an exceptional career.
You remember that old quip by John Doyle where he used to say that Christy Ring won the eight All Irelands for Cork whereas Tipperary won the eight for him. It was a generous compliment to an old adversary and probably had an element of truth in it if not the entire story.
Well, in Shefflin’s case he certainly won some of the All Irelands for Kilkenny – the 2012 drawn game with Galway is regularly cited – but he was also fortunate to be playing at a time when he had exceptional talent around him. It was a combination of the two which produced such a remarkable haul of medals.
I suppose more than any other player he seemed to epitomise the Cody era and the winning culture that it generated. He was obviously a perfectionist who constantly strove to improve his game and clearly did get the most out of his talents. He’s an obvious role model then for aspiring players, an example of how they should behave in both victory and defeat.
Was he the greatest? It’s one of those academic debates that will forever occupy people. In a sense it depends on your definition of greatness. D.J. Carey certainly scored more spectacular goals, ones that linger in the memory, though over a longer period Henry probably had a greater influence on Kilkenny teams. It was that moral force as well as the hurling that set him apart. It was a measure of the man’s commitment to the game that he found it so hard to retire. We wish him well; he certainly enhanced the game we love. Now if only we could get Cody to join him in retirement!
By Jonathan Cullen Thu 2nd Apr
