Blair project pays dividends for Tipp

by Daragh Ó Conchúir

There are few more suited to the modern high performance sports environment than Karin Blair, as an elite camogie player with a yen for figures.

Number crunching is a major part the scene now but having access to stats is one thing. Knowing what they mean, separating the gold from the crud to inform future game plans, is something else entirely.

Whereas many of us floundered in the sea of numbers and formulae in maths class, Blair was in her comfort zone and having initially started doing actuarial exams, pivoted towards data analytics.

She works with Flutter, the sports betting and gaming company. Not having an iota about what might flourish at Royal Ascot during the week is no barrier to doing the job. Everything she needs to know, interpret and pass on is in the numbers.

When it came to making the transition from being a forward to a defender three years ago, after joining the senior squad straight out of minor in 2019, the Cashel star needed something else, however. Sure, some stats might tell her how she was progressing but ultimately, this was about mindset. It was about accepting the decision of management and applying herself to be the best she could be in the new role.

Safe to say, the results have been hugely positive. Indeed Blair managed to inculcate her natural skills with her new-found ones to prove a thorn in the side of opposition forwards, not just in terms of her speed and skill to deny them possession, but by turning them the other way.

“At the start, I was like, ‘Oh God, no,’ Blair admits. “You love taking your scores and even now, when I go back playing club, I play more so in the forwards or midfield. Then you go into county training and they’re handling out the bibs, there’s no question now, I’m a back.

“I definitely found it really hard. Small things. You could find yourself almost watching the play, and then all of a sudden you’re like, ‘Oh God, this player is my responsibility,’ and then she’s off running!

“But what made me get up speed with it a lot quicker was all the girls around me. They knew that I was kind of transitioning into the backs and that I wasn’t as tuned into everything as I should be. It was the kind of constant talk around me that really helped me. And then, you obviously have to shift your focus.”

Without wiping what comes natural from the memory banks entirely.

“The forward in me loves pushing forward, and being able to contribute in that way as well. My game has become about finding the balance and if there is an opportunity to not be afraid, to go for it. And that is something that the lads over us would say. Obviously, number one, you’re a back and you defend. But you play off intuition. If you see an opportunity go for it.”

The alchemy struck gold when Blair scored the winning point as Tipperary ended 20 years without a national title by edging out Galway in the Very League Division 1A final at Croke Park last season.

“In a match, obviously, you’re just playing in the moment, just so present in the time. I didn’t even realise that I was so far out the field. It was just my player had gone out there.

“I remember just looking and I could see the ball was gonna be hit down the line, anticipating it. And then, I suppose I just won the ball, and d’you know, head up. And I was like, ‘Oh, I’m actually up far enough now, I suppose I’ll take a strike at it.’

“But when you’re playing in such a high pressure match, and it’s that intensity, you don’t dwell on it too long. It was reset, back out again.

“It was great when that final whistle blew. We actually got over the line this time. And I think, being able to say, we won that last year and winning the Munster the year before, I think, those two games put a huge belief system in us that we can push over the edge. And we do have it in us to finish things out fully.”

It was tremendous reward for the players, that had been involved in what for a long time, looked doomed to be a Sisyphean task.

It was a time of celebration too, for the families and Blair’s most ardent supporters are her football-mad Down father Joe – the family moved to Tipp due to his work when she was a toddler – and her German mother Jannett, who has undergone a steep learning curve around camogie since her daughter has risen through the ranks.

The German part of ancestry is reflected in Blair’s Christian name (pronounced Kareen, not Karen) and one can only imagine what her relatives think when they see videos of the ferocious exchanges under a dropping sliotar.

Watching her as part of a winning Tipp team at HQ was a joy for them all but that is in the rear-view mirror now. The likes of Cáit Devane, Mary Ryan and Nicole Walsh, among others, have moved on. Injuries have had their say too. With the juniors and minors winning All-Irelands last year, there is fresh blood however, infusing the squad with a new energy.

Last year’s successful minor captain and minor player of the year, Sarah Corcoran has had an immediate impact, while the likes of Lucy Purcell and Caitlyn Treacy have also made their presence felt.

Such developments have led to less roaming for Blair since the commencement of the Glen Dimplex All-Ireland Championships, however. It is a testament to how well she has inculcated the primary responsibilities of her defensive job into her game that the 24-year-old has been entrusted with the No 3 jersey after “big leader”, Clodagh Quirke suffered her third cruciate knee ligament injury in the Munster semi-final against Waterford.

She had missed the start of this year’s League herself as she recovered from shoulder surgery, having torn the labrum in the first half of the aforementioned League final, a revelation that adds even greater lustre to her defining score. She managed it through the remainder of the season before going under the knife.

It was vital, after barely raising a gallop against Cork in their Group 1 opener – they lost by 18 points at The Ragg – that they would respond and the ruthlessness they showed in accounting for Wexford by 32 on enemy territory was pleasing.

Next up is a Limerick team that can secure qualification with victory at Cappamore (1pm throw-in). The same will apply to Tipp but though they will be favourites, the Premiers have been through enough to ensure complacency doesn’t seep into the dressing room.

The points are the most important aspect of the day but that it is Pride Round is something they are all cognisant off.

“We’ve had the Pride flag hanging in our dressing room now for the last two weeks, just to kind of distill that in girls. We wouldn’t really make like a huge thing of it, because it’s just kind of like an accepted thing at this stage. We had a few pictures that we passed onto the GPA.

“It’s great that people know, everyone can be themselves. And I feel like it is an environment, especially the camogie, where everyone does feel accepted. And I do feel like, in the past couple years, that it’s really grown like that, that it’s that kind of environment for everyone.”