No disguising the fact that Tipperary hurlers are lagging some distance behind Limerick

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One of my pet hates at the moment is the use of that word “learnings”. It has sneakily crept into the language so that managers - even journalists - are now employing the term freely as if it’s the cool thing to do. What have they against taking lessons from a game? Why invent a word when there’s one already there?

Anyway, I wonder what lessons Liam Cahill and his cabinet will take from last Saturday at the Gaelic Grounds. I suspect he’ll take quite a few, some harsh and others more comforting. There were certainly mixed signals from his team, which hit perfect harmony in the first half, but then bum notes in the second.

It’s become a familiar pattern against Limerick, which simply reflects our inability to sustain a mighty effort against the dominant team in the sport. No great mystery there.

The opening half was mostly positive from Tipperary. The battle lines were drawn early, Will O’Donoghue fortunate not to receive a card of some colour even before the ball was tossed in. A frantic start eventually settled down to a more modest league tempo.

Tipperary were clearly revved up for the collision. No point in being otherwise against this Limerick machine. They were getting in the tackles, hitting and hassling, as the sides traded points early on. Play was mostly condensed to the middle third, with little or no goalmouth action. Older generations would feel cheated without a few skirmishes in front of the posts.

Initially Tipperary were breaking even but then began to shade it as the tempo dropped a bit. Barry Hogan was finding his men with ease on many puckouts, as the play varied from long to short on the restarts. With some space available Tipperary’s shooters began to thrive. Forde and Tynan led the way but there were inputs of note too from Seamus Kennedy, Gearoid O’Connor and an effortless one from the sideline by Noel McGrath.

Following that one Enda McEvoy tweeted: “Noel McGrath didn’t hit that one over the bar. He tickled it over”.

The lead went out to five before it settled at four for the break. It had been a satisfying half from Tipperary, doing the donkey work up close while making sufficient space for the shooters. Forde and Tynan were the standouts in that half, the latter hitting three from play and putting in a heavy shift in the engine room also.

We’d been here before, of course, so all bar amnesiacs were reading little into the score totals. Limerick were bound to reset; the only question was how well braced Tipp were for the backlash.

Not very well, as it transpired, and here’s where the harsh lessons appeared. Limerick upped the tempo immediately on resuming. The work rate was heavier, they were getting bodies about now, closing down Tipperary on every move. Suddenly we started to feel the pressure. Those in possession were hit and harried, we struggled to get passes away and when we did the receiver was under the cosh immediately.

The middle third congestion was now working against us. Two immediate points halved the margin. Noel McGrath uncharacteristically dropped a simple chance into Quaid’s hand. The Limerick goalie instantly dispatched the clearance to the unmarked Tom Morrissey, who flashed over another point. That was a two-point turnover in seconds.

Limerick were breathing down our necks now, but for the moment we held ground. Another Forde free and Tynan’s fourth of the day held back the tide. But there was a growing inevitability about this half.

Limerick kept coming, working those little choreographed interchanges, setting up scorer on the overlap. By the eleventh minute they’d slipped into the lead and there was no way back as Tipp retreated further.

We could get little traction now in the midfield area, the congestion suiting Limerick as they surged forward in waves. The gap was four points by the twentieth minute and then came the match killer.

For once it was a high lofted shot from Diarmaid Byrnes into the goal area, where Peter Casey used all his experience to outfield Johnny Ryan and finish with the boot. The game’s only goal was a heavy hit for Tipperary, taking the lead out to six points with fifteen minutes still to play.

It got worse when a Gillane free and points from open play by Will O’Donoghue and Barry Nash took the margin to nine, as the Tipperary fade continued. A real drubbing threatened now, but perhaps there was some comfort in what followed.

Tipperary refused to completely buckle. Gearoid O’Connor hit his third point and with Limerick’s physicality drawing fouls, Jason Forde hit four on the trot from frees. The lead actually came back to four before Limerick had the final word through Barry Murphy and Cian Lynch.

We were left to rue a series of wides by Ronan Maher. He’s a mighty striker of the ball, with the potential to be a Diarmaid Byrnes in the scoring stakes, but his conversion rate is poor. On Saturday every attempt fell the wrong side of the posts and there were times when one felt he hadn’t the confidence to even shoot. If Ronan could rectify that failing, he’d be an incredible asset.

The lack of a goal - even a goal threat - was well noted on Saturday, made starker by the fourteen the team had accumulated in earlier rounds. It’s easy to blame the attack but goals usually have their origin outfield, where approach play creates the opening.

We might have had one chance about ten minutes from the end when John McGrath slipped Will O’Donoghue inside the twenty-metre line and just to the right of the posts. The Limerick man dragged him to the ground, took the yellow card, and another pointed free from Forde was the only damage.

What has happened to the cynical foul rule? If McGrath gets away from O’Donoghue in that position it’s surely a goal chance – not a certainty, but a chance as per rule. Isn’t it shameful that the cynical foul rule has been diluted out of existence by refereeing practice? I can’t recall when I last saw the rule enforced.

Anyway, it was another mixed experience for Tipperary, good in spots like that old curate’s egg but not nearly good enough in the round. On the positive side nearly half of the team was new to this level, so there are comforts there. Alan Tynan looks like the real deal and Gearoid O’Connor has surprised me with his impact.

Against that there’s no concealing the fact that we’re a considerable distance behind Limerick. I expected in advance that we’d be overtaken on the home straight, maybe with the arrival of Limerick’s heavy-hitting replacements. I was wrong. We were comprehensively beaten in the second half and therein lies the main disappointment.

Limerick’s All-Star substitutes were surplus to requirements. There’s the scariest lesson from this league semi-final – never mind your “learnings”.