Tipperary need first league win over Westmeath in 63 years to get motoring

Not unlike his comic strip namesake, Storm Dennis blew in with real menace at the weekend, creating havoc with a fixtures schedule that’s so tightly organized it allows little scope for disruption. Tipp’s game might have survived in Thurles but in Salthill it had little hope against the gale coming in off the Atlantic.

Post-primary games too fell victim, with the Munster B game now re-fixed for Bansha this Saturday and the Harty Cup put back to the following week.

These things happen, I suppose, is the most philosophical approach to take to events. We’ve had cancellations in the past and will again in the future – not to mention games being played in conditions where you wouldn’t put out a milk bottle. 

Amazingly some games defied the conditions. Cusack Park, Ennis, is only about an hour’s spin down the road from Pearse Stadium and yet Clare and Laois somehow weathered the elements to play off their round in most difficult circumstances. The conditions acted as a great leveller in the first half but in the second period Clare got the measure of their opponents handily enough.

For Laois and Eddie Brennan the second year syndrome was always going to prove challenging. First year expectations are low, so you score a few wins, get on a roll, the players enjoy the spin and start playing above themselves. Following it up the year after, however, can be tricky. Now expectations are higher, a few defeats can sap confidence and suddenly you’re on a losing sequence.

Laois have lost their opening three rounds to Wexford, Dublin and Clare by an average of just over eight points. It’s a respectable record, given where they were coming from. Their game with Carlow next week will be crucial. Carlow have lost their three games to Clare, Kilkenny and Dublin by an average of 16 points so Laois will be favourites to win in Portlaoise, with relegation the main issue at stake.

The other big game to survive on Sunday last was at Wexford Park, where Davy and crew pulled off another remarkable win over Kilkenny; it was their eighth win in thirteen meetings, with one draw also in the mix. 

Let’s be honest, this is a record that we can only look at with envy in Tipperary. There was a time when, like Tipperary, Wexford were routinely turned over by neighbours Kilkenny. Not since Davy arrived, however, and you can sense that the re-wiring of that rivalry is an item of huge satisfaction in the south east.

I thought this was a remarkable victory by Wexford. When their initial lead was wiped out and they went a point down while playing into a fierce gale with 20 minutes still to run, logic suggested there could only be one outcome. What happened next was astounding. 

It wasn’t just that Wexford outscored Kilkenny by 0-5 to 0-2 in the run-in, it was their control of that phase of play that was so impressive. There was no panic as might have happened with the Wexford of old. Instead they dominated possession and worked clever little inter-plays to manoeuvre the winning scores. Kilkenny couldn’t get a shot away despite the big wind in their backs. The composure of Wexford at that stage was remarkable.

Substitutions played a crucial role in the outcome also. In that last quarter Davy introduced Rory O’Connor, Lee Chin, Diarmuid O’Keeffe and Matthew O’Hanlon as he called on the big guns to rescue a tie that was slipping away. In similar circumstances we’ve often spurned opportunities by leaving key men on the bench. If there’s a sniff of victory you go for it and this guff about blooding new players doesn’t pass muster with me.

Speaking of victory, there’s an absolute imperative that Tipperary take both points against Westmeath this weekend in round 4 of the series. Any other outcome is simply unthinkable, given our requirements.

Incidentally, the logic of fixing this game for Nenagh instead of the Stadium escapes me. Apart from any other consideration there’s the comfort of supporters to be considered in this inclement season of the year. You play your big games in the Stadium, which facilitates both players and supporters.

Our history with Westmeath hurling is a slim enough volume. The last time we met them in the league was way back in November 1985 when we lost a game played at Mullingar. 

We also lost at the same venue in October 1983 on a day when I’ve just been reminded that I was in Templemore with Kickhams’ U-16s in a county final versus Roscrea. It takes some memory man to recall that detail, though of course he was with the winning side. Damn him!

Our record then against Westmeath in the 1980s wasn’t hectic, though as I recall they had a decent side at that time. David Kilcoyne was their standout individual; he won an All Star in 1986 at right corner forward.

Our only ever championship game with Westmeath was in the 2017 qualifier, which was played at Semple Stadium. We got through that day after an underwhelming display.

In the present campaign Westmeath started off with a heavy hammering from Galway but put up a respectable display when losing to Waterford and were only four points adrift of Cork at the weekend. The graph seems to be on an upward curve so Tipperary would need to take nothing for granted.

Our last league win against Westmeath was way back in 1957. No, I wasn’t there, how dare you ask! I suppose I was in what Shakespeare described as the first age of man, ‘mewling and puking in the nurse’s arms’. 

Anyway this is Tipperary’s chance to get their league bid up and running. I presume a side similar to that chosen to face Galway will line out on Sunday. The need for a win is paramount ahead of Liam Cahill’s visit with Waterford to the Stadium the following week. At writing time I’ve seen no news of the rescheduling of the Galway game; presumably the knockout stages will have to go back a week in order to let the series catch up. 

In other news Tipperary were making media headlines at the weekend for different reasons. The Indo devoted extensive coverage to financial matters in the GAA, with a focus on lavish expenditure on the preparation of teams. 

Tipperary topped the list in this particular league with a figure of over €1.7 million in 2019. It’s a figure that’s over half a million north of the 2018 amount, which by any reckoning is a phenomenal increase.

A few other counties aren’t far behind Tipperary in this regard with Mayo, Cork and Galway all posting figures in excess of €1.5 million. Nationally the total amount invested in the preparation of teams is around €30 million - and rising fast. Just five years ago in 2015 the national figure was under €22 million. 

The picture created is of County Boards struggling to keep pace with this relentless appetite for money in the pursuit of inter-county success. 

It’s a runaway train with Tipperary in the leading carriage. Applying the brakes is a priority now for the association because this trend is clearly unsustainable. Obviously Tipperary’s expenditure in 2019 went totally out of control so 2020 presents major challenges in this regard.

To sin bin or not to sin bin, that is the question. As Congress approaches the issue of a black card being introduced into hurling is becoming topical. Already managers like Messrs (no pun intended) Kiely, Cody and Fitzgerald have railed against the notion. An encore of ‘hurling is fine, leave it alone please’ is emerging from county managers nationwide. For many it’s a case of football’s medicine being administered to hurling in the absence of the disease.

But is hurling so pure? It doesn’t have football’s level of affliction, for sure, but suggestions that there’s no cynicism in hurling is clearly myopic. Take an incident from Sunday’s game in Ennis. A second half Clare attack split open the Laois defence. As a forward bore down on goal with a clear chance of netting the Laois goalie dashed out and unceremoniously took the attacker out of it. What followed was simply a twenty metre free and a point scored. Clearly the punishment didn’t fit the crime. No cynicism in hurling indeed! 

Finally someone recently took me to task for suggesting that Borris-Ileigh don’t play to a system but operate instead in a spontaneous, off-the-cuff manner. Their use of a sweeper was cited in contradiction of my views.

My critic completely misses my point. There’s a world of difference between an individual tactic, such as the use of a sweeper, and a system. Since Cuchulainn was a boy and found a way to ram a ball down the throat of a hound, hurlers have always used tactics. 

Systems are quite different, where an entire team is subjugated to a particular ploy or pattern. Think of Jim McGuinness with thirteen or fourteen players behind the ball in the Donegal half. Think of Derek McGrath’s Waterford doing something similar. Now you’re in system territory.

Borris-Ileigh’s game was very traditional. Win possession in defence, maybe use a pass or two but then deliver to attack where the likes of Kenny and Kelly were your ball winners. At times JD drifted back to defend or Ray McCormack went forward to shoot a point but that’s a spontaneous reaction to events as they unfold. It’s not a system.