Tipperary hurlers receive timely wake-up call ahead of the championship

It was a wipeout weekend for Tipperary GAA with both genders sharing in the malaise. The camogie players may have been downright unlucky against Kilkenny but you could hardly make that argument for the hurlers or footballers.
After all the heroics of last year, it’s fast becoming an annus horribilis for David Power’s side. Division 4 is not the place to be heading - and the upcoming Munster series holds little prospect of rapid relief either.
The landscape is nowhere near as bleak for Liam Sheedy’s men, though this was a rattling jolt from the flying Deise and will, inevitably, lead to some reassessment of our whereabouts just a few weeks out from our championship bow.
Tipperary had every incentive to go full throttle for this league fixture. The lead-in was promising, the side still unbeaten, and the three-week wait for championship action offered an ideal window of opportunity. The absence of league medals in the camp had to be a consideration too.
Yet, despite all the convenient choreography around the fixture, Tipperary came up well short of requirements. Forget the nominal five-point gap at the end. Waterford were ten or twelve points ahead of Tipperary on general play. This was a chastening experience, one that raises questions around our ability to cope with a fast-paced inventive opponent.
Ironically it began promisingly enough in the opening quarter. Michael Breen had an instant point and Forde’s nimble step inside the defender for an opening goal gave us the early initiative. It all looked smooth enough at that stage, Tipp coping well in most sectors.
The second quarter, however, saw a significant change. Waterford were starting to step on the gas and Dessie Hutchinson and company were moving with great menace in attack. The corner forward’s first goal was a velvet-touch volley off a Jack Prendergast pass. The Tipp defence was badly exposed.
The second underlined the worry. This time Hutchinson latched onto a breaking ball and with the rearguard parting like the Red Sea the ex-Brighton footballer had a pot shot at Brian Hogan.
We got a major reprieve on the cusp of half-time when a Jake Morris pass sent Noel McGrath in for a reviving goal. Typical of previous games, Waterford were playing well but leaking badly at the back, something Liam Cahill will have to address.
We witnessed a partial solar eclipse during the week and it’s as apt a metaphor as any for Tipperary’s second half display. Our fire wasn’t quite extinguished but it was certainly put in the shade by Waterford’s burning pace.
Time and again their attacking waves carried ball from half back through midfield, leaving our defence under the cosh. The force was with Waterford, Tipperary looking leggy. Yellow cards for Barrett and Ronan Maher underlined the strain.
Waterford rolled off a succession of points and might easily have added another goal or two as Tipperary were now gasping for air.
Somewhat against the run of play, Seamie Callanan turned in a third Tipperary goal after John McGrath’s shot was parried. McGrath followed with an immediate point, which led to fleeting hopes of a late surge from Tipperary.
However, it was as illusional as a will-o’-the-wisp. In the remaining ten minutes or so Waterford outscored the visitors by six-two. The result was emphatic.
We have to hope that the evidence of this game reflects the sporadic nature of league form rather than something more inherent in the side. We could never match the energy of Waterford and it will leave people wondering if it was merely a one-day dip in reserves or reflective of the age profile of the side.
Afterwards Liam Sheedy spoke about the need to bring greater freshness to the championship. That’s his challenge now to lift spirits in the next three weeks and it’s one, I suspect, that will have bothered him on Sunday night last.
There’s not much point in trawling through the team sheet after such a subdued display. A lot of the attention focused on the defence, which at times was certainly overrun. However, the waves of attack were coming from further afield so blame isn’t confined to one department. The collective team effort simply didn’t cut the mustard on this occasion.
At times like last Sunday, one wonders about the overall Tipperary approach. While other teams are certainly working on their style of play, I’m not so sure we have any discernible method. Take the short puckouts as an example.
Tapping the puckout to a corner or full back is all very well but what matters is where the ball goes from there. Not much point in the goalie giving the ball to Paudie Maher on the twenty-metre line when he then advances a few paces and balloons it skyward to the forwards. Sure, Brian Hogan could have done that himself and cut out the middle man.
Surely the purpose of the short puckout is to try and retain possession by working it through the lines. High ball into our forwards has rarely paid dividends, yet we persist.
An added worry after this experience was the fact that we were playing with almost a full hand. Bubbles was out because of some niggling injury and Niall O’Meara had his appendix removed. Otherwise, we had mostly a full deck.
Anyway, let’s not overplay the only defeat of the league series and let’s hope that this reversal was simply a timely wake-up call ahead of the championship.
The other big story hereabouts last week was the latest instalment in the long-running west Tipp transfer saga.
The case was re-heard by the Kerry County CCC, which ruled in favour of the player transfers.
The Kingdom came to Tipp and delivered a verdict which, I suspect, was not well received in some County Board quarters.

Neither was the Kickhams club well pleased and they’ve now taken the case a step further with a counter appeal to the Munster Council.
The saga continues and, meanwhile, the players remain in limbo.
This case gets more complicated and confusing as it moves from one committee to another. The transfers were initially refused in Tipperary because they were seen to be in breach of the county bye laws relating to the parish rule.
Remember, the transfer requests didn’t use residence as their basis of appeal but rather the extreme circumstances of an irretrievable breakdown of relationships between the players and their club.
The DRA found against that ruling by Tipperary, suggesting that there ought to be an avenue for transfer when relationships have irretrievably broken down and that the bye laws relating to the parish rule should be revisited, and presumably reinterpreted by the county.
In effect it was a ruling that the county bye laws in their present guise should not be a bar to such transfers.
Last week’s Kerry committee effectively endorsed that DRA decision by stating that “the Tipperary bye laws 2021 do not, per se, set out any criteria regarding transfers within the county.”
To many observers that reads like an extraordinary statement. We had always understood that the rule essentially confined players to their home parish or the one they were resident in, but now it appears to do nothing of the sort.
What exactly needs to be changed in the bye law isn’t clear but already there’s mention of the County Board revisiting the rule book to tighten the regulations for future years.
The worry of some, no doubt exaggerated, is that this decision, particularly relating to irretrievable breakdown, could create a free-for-all.
What constitutes irretrievable breakdown is, I suppose, a subjective judgment and it seemed at face value to lower the bar for future transfers.
However, the notion that this judgment could lead to wholesale movement of players is surely way off the mark.
The GAA culture is still very much anchored in parish and community and that’s not going to change, even if some individual cases may use this judgment as a precedent.
In all of this, it seems, the Kickhams club felt that their side wasn’t given due acknowledgment.
The breakdown wasn’t irretrievable in their eyes, the door still open for the players to return to the colours, however improbable that might seem to outside observers.
They’ve taken their annoyance now to Munster Council. I’m not sure it’s the wisest move. There’s a time to let go and move on. There’s been enough water under the bridge on this issue thus far, so perhaps it’s appropriate to call time on any further aggravation.
The club had a rousing win over Cappawhite last Saturday in the belated 2020 West intermediate final, no doubt fired by recent events.
It might be wise to keep the spotlight on the playing pitch.

For more Tipperary hurling news see Tipp must be fresher for the championship, says Liam Sheedy