Tipperary could not cope with fast running players in the middle third - Secretary Tim Floyd

Tim Floyd offers the view in his Secretary's report to Convention that a common trend ran across the three telling defeats for the senior hurlers in 2021 - an inability to cope with fast running players in the third quarter of the field.

He writes: “Looking across the three crucial games that decided Tipperary’s fate in 2021, there is a consistent theme that led to our lack of success. In our final League game versus Waterford, the Munster Final versus Limerick and our All-Ireland Quarter Final against the Deices, we struggled to cope with the fast-running game plus our poor level of performance in the third quarter.

“In 2020 these failures were also evident at a similar exit stage against Galway in the final League game plus the All-Ireland Quarter Final and against Limerick in the Munster Championship. Poor weather conditions and November hurling were blamed for these defeats and Tipperary would be a different team and more suited to summer hurling in 2021.

“Over the last twelve years, Tipperary have been renowned for our skill with open play passing movements leading to delightful scores. This flair has brought us three All Ireland titles in one decade with Liam Sheedy as manager for two of these,” he says.

Inb terms of the senior footballers, Tim writes in relation to the relegation to Divusion 4 of the Allianz National Football League that it was hard to believe we were just one point away from promotion to Division 1 in 2018 and winning a Munster senior final a few short months before.

“ The team was now a far cry from these memories, but the biggest worry was the level of our current form as we faced into a tough month before our Munster championship semi final game versus Kerry or Clare on July 10th.
That turned out to be Kerry and Tipperary never looked likely to score an upset victory, but prevented Kerry from scoring a runaway victory too.

“David Power and his management team must now pick up the pieces just seven months after the highs of winning a Munster title and start 2022 from the depths of Division 4 league football. The performance of our under 20’s will help to lift the gloom, but David Power is committed and in Paddy Christie he has a passionate and committed ally,” Tim writes.

The u20 footballers had a first victory since 2015, but Tim says: “This was a learning experience for Tipperary and despite making massive progress on previous years, we found we are still a long way off in preparation for modern day Gaelic football.

“Our physicality and athleticism fall very short when up against the top tier counties and it needs to be addressed as a long-term project. To address this, Tipperary have teamed up with Setanta in a development program, commencing with development squads age 14/15 and continuing a pathway through to minor, U20 and Senior. This commenced in October 2020 and will continue under expert guidance of renowned strength and conditioning experts Liam Hennessy and Des Ryan.

Tim explores the whole area of physical development in greater detail in the report and speaks of the partnerhsip with Setanta . Many Tipperary coaches are graduates of Setanta College including current senior hurling manager Colm Bonner and coach Tommy Dunne. Current Minor hurling S&C coach Angelo Walsh is also a graduate, as is Brendan Maher.