STAPLETON DOESN’T ENVY LONG-GONE SHANE

PADDY STAPLETON recalls a time when he used to keep tabs on Shane Long in training. An avid sports watcher, there’s a reason he kept an eye out for Tipperary’s most famous soccer export in yesterday’s Ireland friendly against Italy at Craven Cottage, a pleasant distraction before his own squad’s seasondefining square-off against Limerick at Semple Stadium.

Two county minors who were part of the Munster title-winning side of 2003, but Long took the road less travelled.

‘He was two years younger than me,’ recalls Tipperary’s seasoned defender. ‘It’s not the whole thing of looking back with rose-tinted glasses – he was our best forward. I had to mark him a couple of times. Just his speed... and he had an unreal ability to catch a high ball. He could have done anything.

‘Any time Hull would be playing or when he was with Reading or West Brom you’d always be looking. It’s great to see a lad you played with for a year and who you’d have known doing so well on a global scale.’

If Long is enjoying a successful Premier League and Ireland career, Stapleton has the thing they both once dreamed of – a Celtic Cross. Whereas Long took up a cross channel move, Stapleton couldn’t be more rooted to the home of Tipperary hurling after being an All-Star nominated corner-back in 2010.

Now 29, he is thick-skinned enough to let the criticism that enveloped the team during the spring following successive defeats to Kilkenny, Clare and Galway.

‘I teach in Coláiste Mhuire vocational school in Thurles, right beside the Stadium, so there’s no getting away from it. I get stick from the pupils, from everyone, but that’s because hurling and the Tipp team matters to everyone in the county. And those of us playing love it that way. Either you embrace it or you get all frustrated and let it get in on you.

‘Whatever people are saying about us now, or were saying about us, won’t matter a whit against Limerick, and it won’t matter at all to Limerick either. When you are at this a few years, as I am now at 29, you learn to listen only to what’s inside the dressing-room walls, to the manager and your teammates.

‘What other people say doesn’t matter. Other people don’t see every Tuesday and Thursday in training, they don’t see the weekend work, the gym work, all the matches. The management, the backroom staff, other players, they all know what’s going on.’

That’s not to say the barbs of spring didn’t sting, especially given Tipperary’s frailties at the back, with Clare rattling in four goals in Thurles.

‘It was tough and one reason we were losing those matches was that the fullback line was shipping easy goals and that was down to us. Any team that loses a couple of games in-a-row, there’ll be doubts.’

IN KEEPING with their ageold relationship, the League campaign was framed by two games against Kilkenny, Tipperary coughing up a 10-point lead in Nowlan Park to lose and then dominating the final only to see the title thieved by a TJ Reid point in injury-time of extra-time.

First to the divisional encounter in which Stapleton featured, the player giving a brutally honest appraisal of Tipperary’s shortcomings in a game that finished on a remarkable 5- 20 to 5-14 scoreline.

‘It was a mad-cap kind of game,’ he admits. ‘Every ball that went in to the forwards seemed to end up in the net. You get games like that – then there are some that the backs get every ball and there’s hardly a goal scored.

‘Supporters and neutrals would have loved it, but playing in one of the fullback lines, I have to say it wasn’t funny. We should have won that game; it wasn’t acceptable to lose it by a couple of points from the position we were in. To be 10 points ahead is a place from which you should win a game. There are lessons to be learned, the biggest of which is that when you get ahead you have to be ruthless and push it on. ‘It was disappointing that day, but Kilkenny are a team that come back at you. Everyone saw it with Galway two years ago, even in the Leinster final that they lost, Kilkenny made a point of winning the second half. They were beaten but they were making a point that day in July that stood to them in September.’

Perhaps it’s with good reason that manager Éamon O’Shea drafted in Armagh’s former All-Ireland winning football captain Kieran McGeeney to work on the psychological aspect of the game with the players.

‘Facts don’t lie for us - we haven’t finished teams off and that’s it. We’ve been ahead in matches and let teams back into it – it’s an area we’ve talked about. It’s an area we want to excel in and if we were going along ignoring it, then it would be a bad mistake, but we’re not doing that.

‘It’s a good sign that we were able to get ahead, but maybe it is a mental thing with us. Every inter-county team is fit, skilled, well able to hurl, so what makes the difference?’

A luckless injury in the warm-up against Kilkenny in February saw him chip a bone in his wrist after an innocuous rap from one of his own players and left him as a spectator for the League final and in a battle to reclaim his regular corner-back spot.

I’d be stupid to even be in here if I didn’t believe we were contenders

It was very hard,’ he admits of watching on helplessly as Kilkenny beat them for the second year in succession in the League final. ‘It was disappointing. Last year we were trying to come back up a little bit. Our performance levels were quite good in the League final, especially going down to Nowlan Park.

‘This year, it’s about winning. If we had played poorly and won it we’d be a lot happier.

‘It was very, very close but you want to be winning these matches. At the end they took a small chance with a sideline that came off; we took a chance and it didn’t come off. That’s how big games are decided.’

But the Borrisoleigh player remains bullish about Tipperary’s prospects for the summer ahead. While Shane Long prepares for a summer tour to America with Ireland, Stapleton is happy to be rooted to home.

‘The talent is in the team to win the All-Ireland – I’m not going to say otherwise. I’d be stupid to even be here if I thought we weren’t contenders; that would be a waste of time.’

RARELY have the reigning provincial champions been dismissed in so many quarters as title contenders. The transition period after manager John Allen’s departure hasn’t been handled well, but there has been no sign of cracks in the dressing room following the departure of joint manager Donal O’Grady. With key players absent during the spring, there were mitigating factors for Limerick’s poor form, and with players of the calibre of Seamus Hickey back in harness, they have the potential to cause a shock here. Donal O’Grady captains the side from centre- forward with Kevin Downes on the edge of the square and so much will hinge on their individual battles with Brendan Maher and Pádraic Maher who have given Tipperary real steel in defence. After his impact-substitute’s role during last year’s campaign, Shane Dowling can show why he deserves to be in from the start and with Declan Hannon on the other wing, Limerick have serious firepower up front. But can the same players rediscover the form that propelled them to a Munster title last year? The pressure will be on TJ Ryan to make the right changes when the Premier turn the screw as the bench had such an impact last year. Tipperary’s League final showing proved the talent that is within the squad but Limerick will hope to make this a test of will as much as anything else. This is a day when the likes of Seamus Callanan has to stand up and lead the attack. Tipperary have the home advantage that carried Limerick through last year’s campaign and they can learn the lessons of the League final and rediscover a ruthless streak down the home stretch.