PREMIER ROUTE
Tipp goal-getter Callanan out to avoid backdoor
TIPPERARY captain Seamus Callanan has said the Premier County are focused on taking the most direct route to reclaiming their All-Ireland crown and are giving little thought to using the back door.
Callanan will lead the Tipperary attack against Limerick in this weekend’s Munster SHC semifinal at Páirc Uí Chaoimh and admits that, with no round-robin and a second chance only available via the back door, a place in the provincial decider is all that’s on his mind.
‘We’re in a Munster semi-final, going through the back door is not going to enter our heads. It’s a situation you can only deal with if you’re put in it,’ he said. ‘We’re going all out to win and not thinking that there’s a crutch to fall back on in case anything else happens.
‘Every other team is going to be the same. It is tough and will be week on week but it’s something to look forward to — we didn’t think a few months ago that we’d have any hurling so to be just days
out from a Championship game is a good place to be.’
The protracted nature of the season has even altered his perception of time.
The 2019 Hurler of the Year said it feels like ‘a lifetime ago’ since he climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand at a packed Croke Park to lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup f or Liam Sheedy’s men.
‘It’s a bit strange, it feels like it’s nearly Liam’s third season with us, as if this year is broken into two years. It seems so long ago that we won the All-Ireland final. It seems like a lifetime ago now, t hrough t he current circumstances.’
Tipperary were among one of the first teams to be affected by the pandemic after being asked to restrict their movements foll owing their return f rom a warm-weather training camp in Spain in March, just as the crisis was unfolding.
The rapid spread of the disease since then has made a necessity of the behind-closeddoors winter Championship, the opening games of which producing two prolific affairs.
The high-scoring in both Limerick- Clare and Dublin-Laois raised questions about what effect the empty stands were having on players.
Callanan is not buying the theory that players might find it hard to motivate themselves without the roar of the crowd.
‘I don’t think so, no. Any time you can get to play in a Munster semi-final — if a Championship being played off in six or seven weeks can’t motivate you to really put it all in...
‘Your medal is going to be the same, whether it’s a 2020 medal, it will mean the same, so your motivation comes from within as well and from the people around you, and wanting to do the best you can for Tipperary. So that will always be there, and if it’s not there, you’re in the wrong place.’
This one is truly a collision of heavyweights with Limerick delivering a statement of intent with their 10-point win over Clare on Sunday.
Callanan’s goalscoring run last year was a signature part of Tipperary’s All-Ireland victory, setting a record in becoming the first player to score a goal in eight consecutive Championship games in a single summer — a stunning contribution.
But the 32-year- old insisted that he i sn’t conscious of the goalscoring run heading into the next Championship game. We just kind of got on a bit of a roll and it just kept going. Maybe that was the touch of luck that you need every year if you’re going to win something.
‘It’s not something I’m conscious of, obviously my job as a forward is to score, but there’s no pressure on my shoulders going into any game. I know what I want to do but you’re not going to get a chance to do it every day.’
Tipperary will need to bring their shooting boots to match the firepower of their Munster rivals if Limerick’s quarter-final is anything to go by. While Clare depe-nded on a virtuoso display from Tony Kelly to keep them in the game until Limerick powered away in the final quarter, the winners were able to count on nine of their starting 15 finding the scoresheet.
Seamus Flanagan and Pat Ryan too made an i mpact off the bench bringing the spread of scorers into double figures.
The manner in which Tipperary cut loose in last year’s AllIreland final against Kilkenny though shows the firepower within the ranks of the MacCarthy Cup holders, even if, as Callanan says, that 3-25 to 0-20 win feels like another time.