End of the Road

The summer and Tipperary hurling tend to go hand in hand, well not this year.

The newly formatted Munster Hurling Championship may have provided excitement for everyone watching on but for Tipperary, as well as Waterford, it's one they would like to consign to Room 101 pretty quickly.

To miss out on the top three and progression to the knockout stages is bad enough but to do so without recording a win with such a talented squad will go up there along with failing to win a championship game in a nine seasons from 1974 to 1982.

Sunday's fourth round loss to Clare confirmed Tipperary's earliest championship exit since they were defeated by Waterford in the 1998 Munster semi-final.

“This is the awful side of this championship this year for us, is that we are one of those two teams,” said Tipperary manager Michael Ryan

“Our season finishes in very early June. What do we do for the rest of the year? This is not the script that we have certainly written. Cest la vie.”

The inter-county hurling summer will go on without Tipperary and there can be few complaints. Two draws and two defeats was never going to get the job done and the irony is that the Premier County produced their best performance against Clare last Sunday and still failed to win after securing draws against Cork and Waterford, games they should really have lost.

 

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