Laffan feels Tipp have improved since Lee-side encounters
By Shane Brophy
Tipperary coach/selector Declan Laffan feels the two-week turnaround between the semi-final and All-Ireland Final will serve the team well.
Cork have been down this road before, just twelve months ago, whereas it is all new for Tipperary. Their last appearance in an All-Ireland Final in 2019 had a three-week gap but with the new condensed calendar, Tipp have just fourteen days to recover from the exertions of the win over Kilkenny and refocus for the clash with Cork.
“Because the Munster Championship is so condensed, the four weeks after the Munster Championship before we played Laois felt like a long time, we were almost waiting around,” said the Loughmore/Castleiney clubman of the varied nature of gaps in the schedule this season.
“We have our routine that we do around all games, be it one or two week gaps, with the exception of the block after the Munster Championship so we’ll approach it the same way.”
Second time around
When Liam Cahill accepted the role as Tipp manager in late 2022, the make-up of his management team was going to be watched closely. Toomevara native Mikey Bevans was always going to come with him, almost joined at the hip since they first came together with the Tipp minors in 2014. TJ Ryan from Clonoulty/Rossmore has always been a trusted lieutenant at minor and under 20/21 level but a new face was needed, and Laffan answered the call.
“Liam approached me a good number of years ago when he took the minor job first,” Laffan revealed.
“I was involved with Loughmore/Castleiney when we did the first double (senior hurling and football in 2013) and it felt it was hard to walk away, so I gave it a pass at the time.”
Laffan went onto have great success with Clough-Ballacolla, winning a three-in-a-row of Laois senior hurling titles between 2020 & 2020 before committing to Tipperary.
“When you are successful you get mentioned but when he did approach me this time, there was a bit of curiosity,” he added of being involved in a senior inter-county set-up.
“There was also a little person on the way at home as well, which was a little bit different. We figured out how we were going to manage it, and thankfully we did, and the rest is history.”
Year one saw progress with Tipp reaching an All-Ireland quarter final, but last year was a disaster, and Laffan revealed the first thing that had to be done was accepting the situation they were in.
“We knew it wasn’t acceptable,” he said.
“Everyone knew what we produced last year wasn’t good enough, and there was a collective, this has to be better.
“So, straight away from the off, it was, let’s go! We just have to go for this, we have nothing to lose, we can only get better.”
He added: “Liam knew what he wanted. We were all involved with him and getting the ideas across and from there everyone went at it from top to bottom.
“From there, you get a bit of belief and start winning a few games, then we started to get people back on our side, which is very important, particularly the support we have had in the last couple of weeks was phenomenal, it is huge to have the supporters behind you.
“If we are being honest, I don’t think anyone foresaw where we are now, but our S&C coach (Angelo Walsh) reminded me that I said to him a couple of months ago, don’t be surprised if we end up in an All-Ireland. I’m the eternal optimist.”
Cork
This Sunday will be the fourth time Tipperary and Cork will have faced off this year. Tipp’s first notable win of 2025 was the 2-22 to 1-21 win over the rebels in the league in Thurles back in February.
However, the most recent experiences haven’t been as good with ten and fifteen point defeats respectively in the National League Final and second round game in the Munster Championship.
However, Laffan feels Tipperary are a different and more confident team since they last time they crossed camans.
“Winning games brings that anyway,” he revealed.
“We took huge learnings from the (Munster) game in Pairc Ui Chaoimh. The biggest for me was the resilience of the group in the second half, it was a sight to behold. I won’t go far as to say it was where the team was born.
“The point we got against Limerick the week before was also hugely important. It gave us a certain amount of belief.
“We knew our attitude and resilience were coming right we just needed to tidy up some of the hurling, getting more of a defensive structure and to stop leaking the goals.
“That was a huge thing against Kilkenny to come out not conceding a goal. We would have been disappointed against Galway for the opportunities we gave up, never mind the scores.”
Playing almost the entire game with fourteen men against Cork in their momst recent clash, it would be easy not to read anything into that game, but considering Tipp struggled in the same areas they did in the league final clash, it meant changes were needed.
“For the second halves in both matches, we tweaked a few things, I won’t say we got everything right, but we got a lot of things right,” Laffan feels.
“We did correct the bits we weren’t happy with either and we are getting the benefit of that as well,” in terms of changing the goalkeeper and going down the man-marking route in defence.
“This will be the fourth time we have played them this year so hopefully we will know more about them than anyone else,” he added.
“We will have to come up with solutions to the goal chances they are creating because, let’s be fair about it, they hunt goals more than any other team I can remember. People will say we are goal-hungry too, but it is a different type.”
“We are not here to make up the numbers. Everybody is playing this game to try and win something.
“If we can get to half time and not be a million miles away on the scoreboard, the game can just take off.”