PREMIER MARCH ON BUT DEFENSIVE ISSUES COULD HALT PROGRESS
But Tipp’s defensive frailties a big worry
IT took a while for the occasion to get the promised fireworks in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday afternoon. For a long time in the secondhalf, this was petering out to an inevitable conclusion as Tipperary held a comfortable sevenpoint lead. It took an inspired performance from Peter Duggan at wing-forward to drag Clare back into the game.
Regrets? There will be a few in the Banner this week, as Donal Maloney admitted. Players and management are certain to hear about them. There was a real opportunity here to dethrone Tipperary and for Clare to get back to Croke Park for the first time since claiming Liam MacCarthy in 2013.
But they didn’t do enough to exploit the fragility at the heart of Tipp’s defence. A combination of poor shooting that saw them tally 18 wides (to go with the 15 fired in the Munster final), ponderous play and a malfunctioning puckout strategy meant they came up just short.
That Tipp are still standing, and looking forward to their ninth AllIreland semi-final in 11 years, is because the sheer talent of their all-singing, all-dancing attack can camouflage the worrying defensive issues.
Such are the gifts of Seamus Callanan, Noel and John McGrath and John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer that they will have a chance. In any game. On Saturday, they nailed 17 from play between them, with Bonner Maher also chipping in with two. The 0-19 from play from their starting forwards contrasted sharply with the five points from play Clare’s starting attack conjured — although Aaron Cunningham, twice, and Shane O’Donnell, with the final strike of the game, also found the net.
O’Dwyer (right) insisted afterwards it wasn’t just about the Tipp forwards’ strikerate, but also their work-rate. ‘It is a team game. We are not just in there to score a couple of points or a couple of goals,’ Bubbles said. ‘We have to do our hard work for the team. If you are asked to do a job, if you are asked to come out and work back, you do that. If you have to go back inside, you do that. It is about knuckling down.’ Confidence is returning to Tipperary, although Bubbles feels their self-belief wasn’t dented as much as everyone claimed after the defeats to Galway and Cork. ‘You lose games, you win games. Our confidence wasn’t affected,’ O’Dwyer reckoned. ‘The confidence we have in this group is second to none. A lot of people might say it was the manner of defeats, but we just put our head down and worked hard inside at training and got back on track. That’s three games on the trot we are after winning now. We had to win two more games. We are back where we want to be.’
In an odd game, as players adjusted to new surroundings and a new surface, Tipperary played in patches. However, they were clinical in those patches. They built a six-point lead by the 18th minute, only for Cunningham to strike for two goals to bring Clare back in the game — the second goal memorable for O’Donnell’s catch above the head of James Barry, who endured a torrid afternoon.
In another spell, Tipp reeled off four points before the break, and shot into a seven-point lead early in the second-half. Each time, they allowed Clare wriggle back into the game. No wonder Michael Ryan was a relieved man afterwards, but he believed the win was craved by the character showed towards the end when Brendan Maher, and substitutes Jason Forde and Niall O’Meara nailed crucial scores.
Maher’s free from 90 yards was particularly impressive, considering he had a quiet game. ‘Those are precious shots. It takes a really good player to do that,’ Ryan said. ‘I don’t think it surprised anyone that Brendan had the courage to take that shot.
‘But I’m really proud of the collective Tipp effort. We are arriving at the right tempo for the All-Ireland series.’
Their issues in the full-back line, though, will mean the possibility of bringing Cathal Barrett in from the cold will be debated up and down Tipperary in the coming days.
They conceded three goals, but it should have been more. On the rare occasion that the Banner delivered fast ball into O’Donnell, Conor McGrath and Cunningham, Tipp looked unnerved. Clare just didn’t do it enough.
McGrath had the ball in the net in the 11th minute but was penalised for over-carrying. ‘I thought it was very harsh,’ Maloney felt. ‘It was a big game for Colm Lyons aswell. I wouldn’t be complaining too much about it, but that was very harsh. There was loads of other incidences of over-carrying throughout the game that weren’t called so that was a very big call to make.’
However, to add to their sense of regret, Clare had other opportunities that they didn’t make count. McGrath’s disallowed goal didn’t cost them that much. What they will look back on is another afternoon of wayward shooting.