COLUMN: Tipperary hurlers look for silver lining after harrowing loss to Waterford

The Tipperary balloon was well and truly burst by Waterford last Sunday in the final Munster round robin game in Thurles, in what was a worrying and surprising result for supporters to swallow.

All week long the talk was about where the final pairing of Tipp and Clare would take place and it is hard to know whether or not that seeped into the Tipperary players minds before the visit of the Déise on Sunday, but the loss culminated in a raw mixture of disappointment and intense relief at qualifying from the province at all.

Now, rather than building up to a clash with the Banner on the June 11th decider, Tipp fans will next grace the field of O’Connor Park in Tullamore to take on Offaly in a preliminary quarter-final, and that fixture couldn’t have been further away from a real possibility before throw-in on Sunday.

What unfolded in front of the big Tipperary support which turned out couldn’t have been in any starker contrast to what had unfolded against Limerick the week previous, and clearly highlighted the effort exerted to battle to a stalemate with the four-in-a-row chasing All-Ireland champions.

The players were completely stuck to the ground, balls went astray, mistakes were made as Waterford dominated swathes of the game and were fully deserving winners on the day.

Further injury woes were also suffered and there is speculation that Brian McGrath and Gearoid O’Connor’s withdrawals could be season ending in nature, with the latter coming out worst in a collision with a camera near the Tipperary dugout during the first half, while the youngest McGrath brother came off in the second half after a massive hit to his back when going up for a high ball.

Focus must now quickly turn to getting the mental and physical wounds healed in the next three weeks ahead of the visit to Tullamore, and it is clear that Tipperary are not in a place to be able to cope with injuries to key players as the two games in a week turnaround clearly wasn’t coped with adequately.

After such a positive Munster campaign in an overall sense, the fact that Tipperary were favourites to be in a decider shows the progress that has been made in such a short period of time under new management, but it might be that this is a timely wake up call and with sufficient time for players to recover it will be vital for Cahill and his backroom team to revitalise the players for a crack at the All-Ireland. Here’s hoping this cloud has a silver lining!