Concern growing for below-par Tipp

By Liam Hogan

What a difference ten months can make!

Last March, Tipp travelled to Kingspan Breffni and came away with a much needed win over Cavan and followed up with victories over London and Carlow to make promotion to Division 3 a certainty. The sides met again in the Division 4 final and Cavan overturned the previous result with a one-point win at Croke Park.

Last Sunday, Tipp travelled north again on the back of a narrow first round defeat to Down against a Cavan team brimming with confidence after they turned the tables on neighbours Westmeath who had beaten them in the inaugural Tailteann Cup final last summer.

It was a tall order for a Tipp team that were hit hard during the week following the news that their talisman Conor Sweeney would miss the rest of the season due to a cruciate ligament injury.

Comparing the Tipp team that lined out last Sunday to the one last year it was evident that both lineouts were more or less the same with Michael O’Reilly, Jimmy Feehan, Kevin Fahey, Colm O’Shaughnessy, Mark Russell, Jack Kennedy, Teddy Doyle, Mikey O’Shea, Sean O’Connor, and Cathal Deeley on the starting fifteen.

However, Cavan had a much-changed side with only Raymond Galligan, Evan Finnegan, Padraig Faulkner, Conor Moynagh, Oisin Kiernan on from the start.

And so, Cavan started prominently but after a two or three bouts of passing from side to side they failed to score until the fifth minute thanks to an Oisin Brady free. Brady would cause huge trouble for the Tipp defence but that would have to wait as the visitors, despite Sweeney’s absence, began to run the show and a well-taken goal by Sean O’Connor had them in 1-2 to 0-1 in front after only eleven minutes.

However, the bright spell didn’t last long and apart from missing a chance to score a second goal in the fourteenth minute when new captain Steven O’Brien, who if successful, would have put Tipp 2-3 to 0-2 in front and very much in command.

But the opposite occurred as Cavan upped through the gears. They were much quicker to the ball and instead of their earlier ploy of moving side to side, they instead went direct and their swift movement plus off the shoulder had Tipp very much in trouble as they were outscored 1-8 to 0-2 in the last 24 minutes of the half leaving Tipp with a mountain to climb.

They had no answer to the explosive Dara McVeety who scored three points from play while the Cavan attack had so many options to call on as Oisin Brady and Ryan O’Neill posed such danger. Full marks to Shane O’Connell, Jimmy Feehan and Dean Carew in keeping the scoring lower.

As a result of the Cavan onslaught, players like Kevin Fahey and Jack Kennedy could not operate in their usual manner. Kennedy had a nightmare day. Apart from scoring five frees, the Clonmel Commercial man was booked late in the first half and as a result his enthusiasm dipped.

If that was not bad enough the Tipp defence conceded a goal that should never happened. Cavan led 0-9 to 1-4 when failure to deal with a high ball on the edge of the square, where clearing imminent danger should have been a priority instead of trying to play the ball, led to a litany of errors by three Tipp defenders and Cavan took advantage with Ryan O’Neill finding the net.

If losing Conor Sweeney was bad enough but when Tipp returned to the action for the second half there was no sign Mikey O’Shea. O’Shea had scored a point in the first half as he continued to pose many problems for the Cavan defence who coped well. With O’Shea gone, Tipp then lost Steven O’Brien in the 45th minute leaving the attack without the ideal target man.

Instead, Cavan took advantage and despite not having Gearoid McTiernan and Patrick Lynch on their side they had plenty talent to take their place and they didn’t take their eye of the ball as they lengthened their lead to win by twelve, a margin that could have been more but for the eleven wides kicked by the home side.

Tipp manager David Power has much to ponder over the next two weeks before they return to action. With injuries increasing he has a huge task in lifting his players as they have to contend with Antrim, Longford, and Fermanagh in the coming weeks. Relegation is a strong possibility. We hope not!