Decisive manner of defeat leaves Tipp at cross-roads

By Joe Scully

When the final whistle went on Saturday afternoon, it was a familiar tale of woe for the Tipperary Senior Camogie team, another All-Ireland semi-final defeat, a third in a row and a seventh in eight years.

It was also another defeat at the hands of Galway for the second year in a row, but this defeat was more comprehensive than last year’s one point defeat.

At the end of the day, the manner and the margin of the defeat is of little consequence, as once again the Tipp players are left wondering if, someone, somewhere, has put a curse of some sort on them when it comes to All-Ireland semi-finals.

However, they can have very few complaints about the outcome, as they were very much second best, beaten by a far superior Galway side.

There will be moments in the game Tipp will look back on, with a few ifs, buts, and maybes, but overall, they will know the better side won on the day.

The game itself was a bit of a mirror image of Tipp’s year, where they failed to hit the heights of what they are capable of, only showing their best in dribs and drabs.

Saturday’s game has a few similarities with their quarter final win over Kilkenny, where they got off to a slow start, and came back into the game slowly, but despite going in level at the break, having been six points down after twenty, they just couldn’t find that extra kick in the second half.

One of the main differences between the sides was the accuracy in shooting, with the tribeswomen way more efficient, 66% scoring efficiency compared to just 46% for Tipperary.

When the game was in the melting pot at the start of the second half, Tipp had several chances but failed to convert them, and you could see the confidence drain out of them with every missed opportunity, while at the other end, Galway were more clinical.

Galway keeper Sarah Healy will be disappointed with the goal she conceded in the opening half to Karen Kennedy which gave Tipp life.

However, she was a key part of her sides victory with her puckouts, which led to 1-5 of her teams tally, four coming right after a Tipp score; her quickness and accuracy from restarts making it very difficult for the Tipp defence, and for them to get any real momentum built up.

Another significant factor was the loss of Tipp full-back Karin Blair to a nasty head injury in the first half.

It cannot be underestimated just how big a loss the Cashel player was, not only for her leadership qualities on the field, but also for her quality, not just defensively since going back into the full back position, but also her ability to solo up field and hit monster scores from distance, which if she had been able to do it could have really given her side a massive boost.

The big question now for Tipperary is, what’s next? After a mixed year where there was as many lows as highs, but at the end of it, it will be seen as a failure, with no silverware to show for the efforts.

It is the end of the third year of manager Denis Kelly’s term in charge, with all signs pointing to a change being in the offing, and the Tipperary Camogie Board will have to decide on who will be next in line to take over.

Whoever does take the job next, while they will come into a team which has suffered another devastating semi-final defeat, they will have to try and figure out what is holding them back from getting over the finish line when it really matters.

While that won’t be an easy task, they will come into a set-up that has way more positives than negatives.

The future for Tipperary camogie is very bright, with the vast majority of this panel still in their prime.

There are also a lot of very talented youngsters ready to make the breakthrough over the next year or two, especially from last year’s All-Ireland minor winning side, with Sarah Corcoran already now an established part of the team, and also one of the finest young talents in the country and a potential superstar in Caoimhe Stakelum primed to make her breakthrough.

Also, any new manager will be hoping to get Eimear McGrath back into the fold after the All-Star forward missed the entire campaign through injury.

While it might not seem like it now after more bitter disappointment, Tipperary camogie is most definitely on the up and an All-Ireland title feels like it is just around the corner, as long as the progress that they have shown in recent years can be kept going and the momentum been built at underage can be continued.

Days like Saturday will hopefully just be a distant memory in the near future.