Tipp hit rock bottom but this loss wasn’t a surprise

By Shane Brophy

Rock bottom! It’s now official, Tipperary are the poorest senior Gaelic Football team on the island of Ireland.

Less than three and a half years removed from the glory of a first Munster title in 85 years on the same weekend as the Bloody Sunday centenary, Tipperary football never felt better.

Successes like that can be looked at one of two ways, the end of the beginning, or the beginning of the end. The latter has proven to be true as since then Tipperary have fallen back massively from being able to beat Cork in championship football to losing to Waterford for the first time in the championship for 36 years.

Last Sunday’s result might have surprised many, but it was coming. Twice in the championship last year, Tipp had it all to do get past the Deise while in the league last month, the spoils were shared in Bansha, so no one should have had any level of confidence that Tipp were just going to land in Fraher Field and leave with an easy win.

However, at half time in this Munster quarter final, that is what appeared likely. Waterford were terrible in the first half. With a diagonal breeze aiding them, having won the toss and opted to take it, they didn’t know how to use it. They registered two shots in the first twenty minutes and managed one point overall, that coming in the 31st minute.

To be fair, a lot of that was down to how Tipperary controlled the tempo of the game in the opening half. They dominated the ball, although made easier in how passive Waterford were in standing off Tipp and allowing them to move the ball around very comfortably with Jack Kennedy orchestrating things from the centre of the field.

Shooting wasn’t easy into the strong wind and an early Cathal Deely effort looked to be tailing wide only for Mark Stokes to keep the ball in play before cutting in to fire to the net in just the third minute.

It was the perfect start against the breeze and one that certainly eased the pressure as they played with assurance and structure.

In what few attacks Waterford had, Tipp turned them over easily, and when on the ball, they didn’t look under pressure, bar trying to get close enough to goal to get a decent shot away which yielded scores from Stephen Grogan and Riain Quigley for a 1-2 to 0-1 half time lead.

However, the Tipperary team in the first half didn’t return for the second, and the same could be said of Waterford. That the home side were so poor and things were so easy for Tipp in the first half, the players could be forgiven in thinking they had the game won and that is what is looked like after the break.

Waterford started a different side; they won the throw-in and had a shot from their first attempt which went wide but it signalled their intent. When Stephen Curry landed a point from play and Tom O’Connell converted a free comfortably into the wind, it made it look like the elements weren’t that difficult to play into than Tipp made it in the opening half.

Waterford certainly had more of the ball and didn’t sit off Tipp to the same extent. However, it doesn’t explain why Tipp completely moved away from what worked in the first half, patient in possession and waited for the opening to present itself. In the second half, they were too anxious to make the killer pass which invariably was turned over or took high risk shots hoping the wind would do its thing. It took Tipp until the 51st minute to register their first score of the half through Peter McGarry, by which time Waterford had levelled.

The only bright moment from the game from a Tipperary point of view was the return of Conor Sweeney after fifteen months out through injury. He was prominent in his half hour on the field and was a threat, but Tipp needed more beside him. Fellow sub Teddy Doyle brought much needed urgency and grit to proceedings, landing a point as well as earning a yellow card, but he was bringing the fight that his teammates were largely lacking.

For all the players that have drifted from the panel over the last three years, there was more than enough talent on the field for Tipperary to beat Waterford, but that ultimately was their downfall was their lack of leadership. In the current squad, without Steven O’Brien, Tipp are a much weaker team, he is one player but apart from Jimmy Feehan, the starting fifteen on Sunday lacked on-field leaders and the longer the game went on and the pressure grew, bar Feehan and Teddy Doyle off the bench, there were few able to take the game by the scruff of the neck.

Jack Kennedy should be that player as he has great ability but when Waterford ensured he wasn’t left free to dictate the play after half time, he struggled to influence the game. That lack of leadership was epitomised in the 58th minute when Tipp won a free 40 yards out. It looked ideal for Kennedy to kick from the ground, but Conor Sweeney took the responsibility and while he got a good connection, it just fell short, whereas Kennedy would have had a better chance off the ground.

Still, on 67 minutes, Tipp were in front but when Tom O’Connell punched an Alan Dunwoody pass to the net, you felt there was no way back as Tipp just didn’t have the personalities or the composure to recover as Waterford powered on to open up a six point lead before Conor Sweeney’s late consolation score.

You would have to think that having hit rock bottom, Tipp football can’t sink any lower but the next five weeks will be massive for this relatively new management team and the panel of players whether they allow things to drift further or make Sunday, 7th April 2024 the day the rot stopped.