By Shane Brophy
Tipperary are far from the complete package.
One of the most frustrating aspects of their performances in recent times is they tend to play to the level of their opposition; a good team and they up things a lot, play down and they tend to go through the motions and make things difficult form themselves. Unlike Galway who lay-waste to teams they are supposed to beat comfortably, Tipperary rarely do that, and despite beating Antrim by fifteen points, it was far from a fluid display.
Certainly, the conditions on Saturday have to be taken into account as the mist coming off the hills turned into rain, made hurling difficult, despite the surface being in relatively decent condition but it started to cut up towards the end.
Tipperary manager Liam Cahill pointed to his sides poor handling in the first half and certainly Tipp rarely put flowing moves together throughout, with only seven different scorers contributing.
Despite leading 1-10 to 0-4 at half time, some of Tipp’s play was poor, particularly to the inside forwards who struggled to win primary possession. It’s still an aspect that Tipperary have to improve in where their rivals are able to work the ball into teammates, Tipp tend to be winning ball under more pressure than they need to, the movement off the ball certainly needs to be better.
Antrim played Ryan McGarry as a sweeper, but Tipp struggled to pull him out of position from where Jason Forde and Jake Morris could do their damage, despite going onto score 2-13 between them, with both of Morris’ goals well-finished as the vice-captain brought his total to four in less than three and a half games this season. As a finisher, there are few better in the country.
With Liam Cahill also revealing that he hadn’t informed the starting fifteen of the result of the Galway v Limerick game which concluded shortly before the throw-in, one would have expected a greater urgency from the players in case they needed to win by a thirty-point margin. In the end, Galway’s draw with Limerick meant avoiding a defeat was all that Tipp needed and played in such a manner, doing enough without being spectacular.
Antrim were competitive throughout but short on quality with so many key players missing, either injured or opting out for this year. It’s a tough situation for their Portroe manager Darren Gleeson as after getting a good pool of players together in recent years, he is effectively forced to rebuild when he would have been planning on giving Leinster a right good go this year. On current form, retaining their Liam MacCarthy status would be success.
Tipperary won’t have such worries as they continue to tune up for the Munster Championship and having another competitive game (or two hopefully) before then is certainly welcome, and the clash with Clare next Sunday should be full-blooded and you would expect more in terms of performance from Liam Cahill’s men.
Injury permitting, you would expect it to be as close to the championship fifteen as possible and we probably got a glimpse of it last weekend, bar the likes of Conor Bowe, Gearoid O’Connor and Willie Connors coming back into the equation, while Cathal Barrett would have to be rated as a major doubt to be ready for the championship having gotten no game time as he struggles to shake of a hamstring injury.
In this game, Danny Slattery became the 38th player to line out in the league so far and did well, primarily in the middle of the field as Antrim only played two in the full-forward line, manned by Craig Morgan and Ronan Maher, the latter imperious throughout, although Tipp had some hairy moments in the second half with Rhys Shelly having to be alert to divert two shots away. However, they were half chances, and that Tipp have managed four clean-sheets in five games, the full back line are certainly doing their job so far.
The half-back line remains a conundrum, not helped by Seamus Kennedy’s season-ending knee injury. Conor Bowe appears the only certainty so far while Michael Breen has the flexibility to play there or as a mobile corner back. Robert Byrne appears in pole position for centre back, he has done nothing wrong so far in providing a physical presence, but his use of the ball needs to improve, particularly considering how Declan Hannon and John Conlon are expert at it at the moment.
Bryan O’Mara hasn’t commanded that spot yet and one wonders could Noel McGrath be that man as he can read the game so well, plus his use of the ball is superb.
It also solve the conundrum of playing himself and Willie Connors in the same team, as Tipp haven’t gelled as well since he last featured against Galway in round 2, while McGrath not as influential at wing forward here.
Conor Stakelum was his usual combative self at midfield along side Paddy Cadell who had some good moments as he continues to get up to speed after a delayed return, while Alan Tynan and Dan McCormack are also options there also, the latter having done so at club level for Borris-Ileigh.
The new wrinkle to the gameplan on Saturday was at centre forward where Eoghan Connolly started, an earmark to having more of a physical presence there, and was doing well until his injury-enforced exit. Hopefully the elbow injury isn’t too severe as Tipp don’t want to lose another physical presence along with Seamus Kennedy.
With Tipp expected to win and enjoy a lot of the ball, Sean Ryan will have been hoping to press his claims, but things didn’t run hoped for the corner forward who was continually out in front of his man, but the ball just didn’t stick as hoped. He would have been frustrated to be taken off at half time, as the management went an extra body around the middle and more pace in Sean Hayes, who did well in the second half with his penetrating runs, a feature of his play for Kiladangan last year, causing problems but his final pass was just a bit off, symptomatic of Tipp’s performance as a whole.
Sean Kenneally was one of the few Tipp players to bring a real energy to proceedings, getting two points to his name and was a willing forager on the forty. He was quieter when moved to corner forward after half time, but can he happy with his contribution, as did Darragh Stakelum in his brief cameo after returning from a finger injury.
However, it was all about the result, or the results as it proved, as Tipp march onto a semi-final with Clare in the unusual location of Portlaoise, owing to the TUS Gaelic Grounds being still unavailable.
