Missing trio key to Tipp’s system’s failure

By Shane Brophy

What a time to produce one of your poorest performances of the season!

Tipperary went into this Munster semi-final with high hopes of getting back to a provincial final, but they were well and truly evaporated by a Limerick side who were deserving winners, without having to play that well themselves.

In truth, this was a dire game of football. 2-10 to 0-10 is low scoring in a modern footballing context, so what was the reason for it? As Kilkenny manager Brian Cody regularly says, games’ take on a life of their own, and this was one of the worst examples for football. Maybe it was the pressure of what was at stake, a place in the Munster final for two counties who don’t get there that often, particularly for Limerick who haven’t been there in twelve years.

In a recent context, Limerick have been performing better than Tipperary and backed up their upsurge in fortunes in getting to division 2 of the league by setting up a Munster Final date with Kerry on Saturday. They would hardly have disrespected Tipperary by having one eye on that, but it was hard to understand their negative gameplan in the first half when they played fifteen men behind the ball at times. In fairness to Tipperary, they always looked to keep two or three men in attack every time Limerick had possession, and still the home side were comfortable defensively, penetrated only once in that first half but it led to the first Limerick goal where Brian Donovan drifted in behind and while Michael O’Reilly made a tremendous save with his legs, Josh Ryan was on hand to send the rebound to the net.

With Limerick so hell bent on shoring up their defence, it left Tipperary with few avenues of attack, still they looked the more creative on the ball with Sean O’Connell, Mark Russell and Shane O’Connell all landing long range scores, and they had to as space for the inside line was limited, although Conor Sweeney and Mikey O’Shea did have decent chances.

This lack of creativity is where the injured trio of Bill Maher, Kevin Fahey and Robbie Kiely were incredibly missed. Tipperary are a footballing county who can’t be without any of its class players, particularly their ability to break through even the most well-designed mass defences as they have that burst of pace to break through the lines. Tipperary just didn’t have that, despite the best intentions of Conal & Jack Kennedy, while Mark Russell and Steven O’Brien looked off their best as they are still not one hundred percent fit from recent injuries. Without that extra pace, it was hard to break through that Limerick defence where they were physically imposing. What strength & conditioning programme their hurlers are lauded for, looking to being followed by the footballers as they were more athletic and powerful than Tipperary in key areas.

If you were to be critical of Limerick, it is they should have won the game by more with all the possession they enjoyed. They are a side that don’t take many risks and won’t risk giving away the ball if the right option is not on. There were times they went significant periods in possession but did nothing with it.

In reality, it wouldn’t have taken much of an improved performance from Tipp to win the game, despite Limerick having a greater share of the ball and chances, which they wasted. In fact, the game was level at 1-5 to 0-8 after 51 minutes when Tipp started to implode rather than Limerick taking the game by scruff of the neck.

Kickouts are such an important area of Gaelic football in terms of regaining possession, and as we saw with Limerick’s gameplan, is nine-tenths of the law. And crucially in the second half, Tipperary’s kickout broke down with Limerick claiming eight of their restarts, including one which led to Brian Donovan’s goal on 55 minutes which broke the game open for the visitors.

While Michael O’Reilly was almost flawless on his kickouts in the first half, Limerick upped the press after the break with the Tipp keeper struggling to get clean getaways. Then when he had to go long, it was done into loose scenarios than crowded areas. Tipperary should have been able to challenge strongly in the air with the Kennedy brothers, Russell, and O’Brien all on the field, but too often the kickouts were to one-on-one match-ups where Limerick got the ball to ground where invariably with their extra pace and athleticism won the break and were able to transition quickly into scoring positions.

With Tipperary not having a regular supply of possession and without pacey runners to break from deep, it meant the inside forwards having little opportunity to do their thing and it was no surprise that all six of Tipp’s starting forwards failed to score from play. Indeed, that Tipp score ten times, with just two wides, and two shots dropping short into the goalie’s hands shows how few scoring opportunities they created on the evening.

But for some superb long range point taking from defenders Sean & Shane O’Connell and the excellent free-taking of Jack Kennedy, this could have been more grim for Tipperary than it ultimately was.

However, it can’t be overlooked the inexperience of this Tipperary team. An incredible twelve players have been given their championship debuts in recent weeks, with the team that faced Limerick containing just five survivors from the side that beat the Shannonsiders on route to the Munster title in 2020. That turnover of players, be it through injury or player withdrawal, is massive, and Tipperary are a county that don’t have a deep pool of talent at the moment, but hopefully the blooding that is being forced on David Power at the moment, will show some maturation in a championship context in the coming years.

This is where missing out on a Munster Final this year might be a blessing in disguise. In all reality, a far from full strength Tipperary would have copped a beating from Kerry, and then the same against possibly a Tyrone in an All-Ireland Qualifier. Instead, Tipperary can go into the Tailteann Cup and play teams of their same level, and hopefully, providing they get past Carlow in the first round, go on a run which would give the new players more experience and possibly get to Croke Park where every inter-county team wants to be late in the year.

Like the senior hurlers, Tipperary football is in a transition phase and the performance and result against a Limerick side who are further down the road in their development is a fair indicator of where Tipp are at the moment.