Both sides are treating Sunday's Tipperary county final as just another game

For the two management teams parading the tramlines on Sunday afternoon next for the Tipperary Water county senior hurling final in Semple Stadium, getting their charges to the biggest day in the domestic scene has been a huge achievement -going the extra mile and winning the final, will be a magnificent one.
Clonoulty Rossmore Manager John Devane is relatively new to this game, while Nenagh Eire Og's John Fitzgerald has been there before, but without managing to get over the line. The Na Piarsaigh, Limerick clubman returned to Nenagh Eire Og this season having been with Silvermines last year and was immediately struck by the level of desire in the camp to improve and to be as good as they could possibly be. And, like John Devane, he was prepared to give it a right go, happy in the knowledge that there would be thirty players on the pitch each night ready for hard work and to fight the good fight.
“ What you find with Nenagh is a great club with a great underage structure. Some of the older players who left over the last few years are driving on the juvenile side of it. They are a club with huge aspiration. What you get when you go out to train a team in North Tipperary is 30 fellas showing up every evening. After that you cannot ask for any more. Once you have that level of commitment, you cannot ask for any more. Our goal has been to recover from the semi-final game and then look forward to the final. You have to enjoy the final too and not get caught up in the whole occasion. You have to play the match and we'll be looking to come with that to Thurles on Sunday,” John Fitzgerald says.
Clonoulty Rossmore too have enjoyed their season so far and even allowing for the fact that John Devane came straight from being a player to being Manager, the ship has sailed with relative ease to the final. Granted, there were a few hiccups along the way, but Devane committed to working with lads who wanted to wear the jersey and who were prepared to do what was asked of them. The rest, he cut adrift.
“When you start out at the start of the year you set out targets and to get back into the west final was first and then you take it game by game after that. That's the way we have done it all year and that's what we will be doing again for Sunday. When you get to Thurles and a semi-final there is only one thing which matters and that's the final score, that's all that matters. We have a couple of points in the difference and that's all we needed. Now, we might not have been entirely happy with our performance, but we got there and that's what counts,” John Devane said this week.
In relation to his own transition from wearing a jersey to donning the Bainisteor's bib, he adds, “ It has been very easy because of the backing I have received from my own management and the players and the club in general – they have all pulled on the jersey at different stages during the year and they will be needed agian on Sunday. I have not seen any problem all through the year because the people that are commited to it are there in the field every Tuesday and Friday night. You just let players loose rather than trying to manage them,” he says.
One issue which occupied the minds of both management teams was the gaping hole in the middle of the hurlin season which saw clubs go without championship action for the bones of two months. How do you manage that? Do you take time out? Do you taper your training? Or do you keep ploughing on?
“It has been a very difficult championship for club players. You start in April, you have to go all out for a few games. You have to come out of your group so you can't not train because if you don't come out of your group you won't be involved in the business end of the championship. Then, there is a huge lull throughout the summer period and it is something that needs to be looked at because it didn't benefit Tipperary either with players out for 7/8 weeks in a row. Can that be suistained? Probably not, no more than you could sustain April performances the whole way through the championship. But we are there having come through tough battles and that's what counts,” John Fitzgerald says.
John Devane's outlook is slightly different, but then so is the west championship in comparison to the north equivalent. “ We knew the year was going to be tricky because with the block in the middle of the summer with no matches, what do you do? Do you stay training? We took two months away from the field and I would put a lot of that down to freshness of players and there is no point in flogging lads either. We have a lot of lads in Dublin and you can't really expect them to come down during the week and spend 5/6 hours in a car and give everything they have. We are fresh and relatively young and the lads have a fair bit of experience too with two county finals. A lot of that experience hads driven us on because they know what it takes to get back there and they know the challenge they have against Nenagh. We have to meet that challenge.
“We managed it as best we could. I think the clubs, the county and the GAA need to acknowledge that it is frustrating for players. Some lads go to America and came back reinvigorated. But, it is a grey area whether this is going to work or not. I thought it would be a really good thing – you might say that it has worked because we are in a county final, but a lot of clubs are saying that they never got going after the break,” John Devane offers.
As for the county final on Sunday, both side are claiming it to be a fifty/ fifty affair.
“There were no trophies given out after the last day and we fully realise that. It's a county final, a big game and there won't be more than a puck of the ball in it. We though Clonoulty Rossmore were a very good, well drilled side and the way they are performing doesn't just happen. But, all we can do is go back concentrate on our own performance and try and bring that to the final,” says John Fitzgerald who works as a car salesman with Frank Hogan motors in Limerick.
“Nenagh have gone through the county championships undefeated – they are a serious team. We took them on in the Ragg two months ago now and we know the ball players they have. The space of Thurles suits them and they use the ball to the best of their ability. If we don't close down Nenagh they have the forwards who can do the damage to us. We take each game as it comes. We started out against Mullinahone in Bansha and you just want a win. It will be no different on Sunday and it will be a tough assignment because Nenagh will be the same. It's a while since we both got over the line so that will be very exciting for one of the clubs. All we can do is look after our own club and make sure that we come here with our own ship in the right frame of mind,” John Devane said.