With the football odyssey over the spotlight focus now intensifies on the hurlers and the quest for that minor/senior double on September 4. It’s where we’d wish to be in late August, though past history with Kilkenny is going to make it a nervous build-up for Tipperary.
As the dust settled on the semi-final win over Galway, reflections have been many and varied. The over-riding feeling, I suppose, was one of relief at a job done, but also a realization that a bigger challenge awaits.
Actually on reviewing the video of the semi-final once again my perceptions shifted a little. I was reminded at the weekend that a number of the starting Tipperary fifteen were playing their first ever senior game in Croke Park. Michael Breen did come in as a sub in 2015 but for Seamus Kennedy, John McGrath and Dan McCormack it was entirely new territory.
Effectively Michael Breen is in his first season as an established player too so that’s around a quarter of the starting team who are novices at this level. In the circumstances they did well – much better than well in the cases of McCormack and McGrath.
The midfield zone drew a lot of criticism after the match, the consensus being that we lost that area for all bar the opening quarter. Perhaps we did, but let’s not forget that it was probably Galway’s strongest line. David Burke is consistently excellent and probably has an All Star award nailed down. Adrian Tuohy has been an exciting addition this year and even when he had to withdraw with injury Johnny Coen took up the baton very effectively. We lost the area but not as decisively as might have been initially felt. Even Michael Breen did more second half work that I previously thought and was probably unlucky to be withdrawn, the captaincy being a factor in Brendan Maher’s favour.
In any case midfield is one of those fluid areas that it’s very difficult to dominate for an entire game. It requires a lot of mobility and breaks can sometimes go either way without a player having much control.
Probably the only selection issue ahead of the final will be whether or not to start ‘Bubbles’ against Kilkenny. For some it would be unthinkable not to start one with such talent but the counter argument centers on his work rate – or lack of. All year this management has placed a huge emphasis on work rate with the focus on tackle counts and the number of hooks, blocks, assists etc. It’s an area where ‘Bubbles’ has struggled.
If the Killenaule man is included then the obvious one to lose out is Niall O’Meara. The Kilruane man certainly lacks nothing in terms of work ethic but wouldn’t have the score-threat of ‘Bubbles’ and that lack of touch which led to Galway’s opening goal won’t help his cause. It will be interesting to see how the dice falls though the odds must favour a ‘Bubbles’ start on September 4. A potential full forward line of John McGrath, Callanan and ‘Bubbles’ carries quite a threat.
At the defensive end the general consensus after the semi-final was that both Cathal Barrett and Mikey Cahill struggled more than usual. There’s no denying that both had moments of difficulty but against that the Tipperary defence as a unit presented very few openings to Galway, the two goals coming from mistakes by a forward in the first instance and then a midfielder.
Perhaps the bigger issue around team selection is the substitute bench and the lack of impact there though I suspect Brian Cody has his issues in that regard too. Kieran Bergin seems to have slipped down the pecking order quite significantly judging by the semi-final replacements which has left some people puzzled. I don’t have an answer to the riddle.
Anyway they’re into the last fortnight of preparation now with every motivation to produce the performance of their collective lives. As expected Brian Gavin has been announced as referee. Hopefully we won’t be discussing him after the game.
Speaking of referees there was plenty of discussion about David Coldrick following Tipperary’s football defeat to Mayo on Sunday last. The black card dished out to Robbie Kiely early in the game was a critical moment. This black card sanction was introduced in order to penalize the blatant pulling down of players – remember the Sean Cavanagh incident some years ago – or the deliberate body-checking of runners. Robbie’s offence was in that grey area where you could debate the intent of the player either way.
Sadly the referee took the severest view of the incident and that card robbed Tipperary of a central player after a mere ten minutes of action. Robbie has been pivotal to the side, strong and composed at half back and very effective moving forward too; his late point against Galway in the quarter-final was a season highlight.
Whatever about the ifs and buts of the Kiely card there was no debate around Bill Maher’s dismissal late in the action. How a referee and his team of six officials can get something so spectacularly wrong is baffling. Those were the type of breaks that underdogs Tipperary needed going their way. They also needed to maximize every chance and perhaps in this area lack of experience told against them.
On the other hand Mayo have been around this particular block a few times and they had a little more nuance to their game. They availed of a mistake to run in the first goal, which in many ways was a game changer, one that left Tipperary scrambling for composure in the second quarter. The second goal had a fluky element to it, though substitute Conor O’Shea, showed great feet to put it away.
Still Tipperary lost nothing in defeat and by any reckoning it has been a monumental season for the footballers. They’ve won plenty of admirers for their style of attacking play and the challenge for them now will be to build on this foundation. They need to be aware of second season syndrome.
I have much admiration for the players who’ve shown great attitude all season both on the field and in interviews afterwards. Something clearly jelled with Liam Kearns and this particular bunch of players and it brought them to a place that no Tipperary side has visited for over eighty years. Surely come winter time Declan Browne will no longer be our sole football All Star.
However, there is an aspect to this Tipperary football story which shouldn’t go unaddressed. There is a narrative being put out there which presents Tipperary footballers as a harshly treated, hard-done-by section of the GAA family. It’s an image projected by some from within the football fraternity of the county and willingly embraced by others outside. According to this script they are discriminated against and hindered at every turn.
On TV last Sunday Pat Spillane referred to the Tipperary footballers being ‘barely tolerated’ in the county. Really? During the quarter-final win over Galway co-commentator, Martin McHugh, made an issue about the need for the Tipperary County Board to do much more for the footballers, though I suspect if you asked him what he wanted done that is not already being done, he wouldn’t have an answer.
However, one of the worst examples of this attitude came after that great victory over Galway when former manager, Peter Creedon, delivered a nasty tweet which read ‘… and the poor old County Board will be upset too’. I don’t recall Peter Creedon having issues when he was manager except for the fact that when he was stepping down he made a passionate plea to abandon dual players. In future footballers had to play football only.
I think this type of guff needs to be answered because it is so unfair and at odds with the reality. The footballers have every facility and resource enjoyed by the hurlers and successive managers have openly admitted this when questioned.
So what is their issue and why this ongoing persecution complex? Did the County Board force Colin O’Riordan to move to Sydney? Did they instruct Seamus Kennedy and Steven O’Brien to play hurling? Maybe the County Chairman had a quiet word with Paddy Codd and Barry Grogan and told them to slip away quietly into the night? Or was the secretary busy organising J1 visas for some lads to head to America? Maybe the Board is financing Peter Acheson’s move to Dubai just in case the footballers make any more progress?
Players make personal choices and you can’t blame the County Board or anyone else when you lose some. If Tipperary’s footballers continue to perform at this year’s level then fewer players will slip away in the future and that’s the reality for both games in every county. The Tipperary footballers, who were so fantastic all season, deserve better mood music than this background sniping.
