Tipperary have Cats’ instincts – they’re the real deal
ON THE night of last year’s All-Ireland hurling final, it struck me to hear Séamus Callanan saying Tipperary would have to put titles back-to-back to be counted as a force. When they last won a senior in 2010 – with five Under 21s on the team – I predicted that they’d win three of the next five. Instead, it took them until last September to add to their collection.
The general view over the winter is that they were playing it down, rather than up.
Blowing Dublin away in the first round of the Allianz League did not change that attitude, one that has clearly stemmed from manager Michael Ryan. They followed that up last weekend by doing a job on a Waterford side still on a high after beating Kilkenny.
What piqued my interest first was the team selection against the Déise with just six starters from the All-Ireland. I wondered whether it was Ryan thinking a defeat wouldn’t see them lose face or, perhaps, he was giving others a chance to step up. Clearly, it was the secTipperary ond option. Before the match, Eoin Kelly suggested that you could graze sheep on the Walsh Park pitch. No doubt Waterford were looking to play the game on their own terms.
Except Tipperary won the battle every which way.
If you’re missing two or three lads, I know the impact that can have on a team. I don’t need to name all the nine missing but when you take Ronan Maher out of defence and four of the six starting forwards, then it’s a real test of strength.
That they won playing with such power and pace suggests, straight away, that they have at least 24 players up to the standard.
Then you look at what’s coming behind. In winning the All-Ireland last year, the Tipperary minors were excellent.
One of those stars is Brian McGrath – younger brother of Noel and John – who inspired Our Lady’s, Templemore to Harty Cup success last weekend. It is a small enough school but they managed to beat St Colman’s of Cork to claim a first title since 1978.
So there’s another McGrath coming. John was my Hurler of the Year last year; my man of the match last Sunday. Only two rounds of the League in and they are shaping up seriously well for 2017 and a tilt at going back to back.
have size, physique, fitness – and the hurling as well. The great Kilkenny team had that, too, that instinctive ability to do the right thing. With a very simple brand of hurling.
At Walsh Park, the diagonal ball out of defence was a clever way of curbing the influence of the sweeper, rather than putting it down the line where the spare man’s first instinct is to cover across. This was the visitors using their brain. And the players at the back had the power to break the tackle and deliver that ball.
In the context of what we’ve seen in the League so far, with nearly everyone else beating each other, it is hugely impressive. This same Waterford team that were put to the sword were so impressive in winning at Nowlan Park for the first time since 2004.
Cork were being built up after turning over Clare only to lose tamely at home then to Dublin who suddenly cast aside their billing as obvious relegation candidates.
I’ll get to Kilkenny in a minute. But looking back at the last five years of the League, results have been very erratic. This is the time of the year when things change dramatically week on week.
It buys back into the madness of the pressures on players, managers and county boards at such an early stage of the season that I described last Sunday.
Right now, there are question marks over everybody – bar Tipperary.
Between 2010 and 2015, much was said about how they found it very difficult to win their own ball Tin the forward line. That was the main criticism, a very valid one. HEY have evolved much in that respect. They are not averse to a short puck out, of going over the halfback line. John McGrath’s emergence as a ball-winner is one element; Dan McCormack’s selection another. It just shows that you can’t have all one type of player in a team.
Look at Stephen O’Brien last Sunday and how he chipped in with a couple of points. A very good footballer, it was a big call for him to go with the hurlers. The more hurling he can get, the better player he will become.
Manager Ryan knows that he needs a strong panel if he is to defend that All-Ireland. You never know when injuries can strike. But he’ll know too that he has 13 or 14 of his regular players in mind, that his team only needs a few subtle changes. Last Sunday will create that extra bit of competition.
Tipperary certainly look to be in rude health.
By way of contrast, the rush to judgement over Kilkenny has been a bit much. Some of the comments have been absurd, bordering on disrespectful. Suggestions hat the team are gone and that Cody’s time could be up as well are completely wide of the mark.
The bottom line? The All-Ireland final aside, they were the second best team in the country last year. And there are key players missing at the moment due to injury – Michael and Colin Fennelly, Ger Aylward and, to a lesser extent, John Power.
Cody is also playing key people out of position. Pádraig Walsh has been outstanding at right half-back. Moving to full-back smacks of desperation with Joey Holden gone out to wing back. It’s noticeable that players who have struggled in recent years are still there. Very few new players are being unearthed.
There can be no disputing Kilkenny are entering into a period of rebuilding.
Come Championship though, with everyone back, it’s fair to say very few teams will beat them.
That should be remembered.
After two rounds of the League, Tipp are shaping up seriously well