Champions mentality sees Tipp find a way to win

By Shane Brophy

Saturday night was a far cry from Croke Park in high summer but Tipperary passed their first real test as All-Ireland champions with a gritty and in the end, merited win over Galway to get their National League campaign off to the best possible start.

Played in driving rain for much of the contest, it was more of a test of will than skill, and yet both sides served up an entertaining contest with Tipperary’s greater experience and confidence from being All-Ireland champions seeing them pull away in the closing stages.

Not only that, but it also preserves Tipperary’s unbeaten run at Semple Stadium, which is now at six games, going back to 2024 as a key aim of Liam Cahill of making Thurles a true home advantage is building momentum, and will be severely tested when they tog out at home again against Limerick on February 21st.

Before then, Tipperary hit the road to Tullamore and Pairc Ui Chaoimh, and doing so with two league points already secured is welcome in an ultra-competitive division 1A where the first target is to get enough points to retain your status, not only for the quality of games, but also keeping the county treasurer happy as Tipperary’s run to last years final yielded a 150% bump in return on the previous year, despite reaching the league semi-final in 2024.

The Tipperary management were taking no chances with this game against a youthful and motivated Galway side, starting with ten of the side that began the All-Ireland Final with captain Ronan Maher, Eoghan Connolly, Craig Morgan, Jason Forde and John McGrath the five not to feature, with Forde an unused sub on the bench.

The league is primarily about finding players, but to give the fringe and new players their best chance of showing their best, they need experience around them and that is what senior debutantes Cathal O’Reilly and Jack Leamy benefitted from.

In terms of O’Reilly, the 2024 All-Ireland minor winning captain, he took to this level like a duck to water, as was expected. Composed on the ball, and off it as he trusted his skill to deny Aaron Niland an almost certain goal with a superb dispossession when many other defenders might have looked to foul.

For Jack Leamy, it was a debut to forget. Not that he made mistakes, it was a 35 minutes that just passed him by. His only impact was being fouled under a dropping ball which yielded a free, as he failed to get a possession in his time on the field. Maybe it was nerves, but he failed to get to the pitch of the game, even in terms of his tackling off the ball. He isn’t the first and won’t be the last. Ronan Maher’s first senior championship game in 2014 lasted just 35 minutes, and he didn’t turn out too badly afterwards.

However, Liam Cahill and his management set high standards and you might not get many more chances when you get the opportunity, with Leamy replaced by Darragh Stakelum whose 65th minute goal finally turned the game in Tipp’s favour.

The management will have been pleased by the impacts made off the bench by Josh Keller, busy in possession, while Paddy McCormack assisted in two points in his spell on the field, while Stefan Tobin also won a free which Jake Morris converted as part of his eight point haul. Johnny Ryan came into the fray in the first half for the injured Robert Doyle and had his hands full with Jason Rabbitte, son of Joe, to played very much in the mould of his father who was a thorn for Tipperary teams thirty year or so ago.

Credit to the Semple Stadium ground staff, they had the pitch in as good a condition as it could be but it cut up almost from the start. Still the players made the best of it, Tipp playing second fiddle for long spells with Galway dominating possession, particularly thwarting Tipperary’s puckout with Rhys Shelly unable to find his targets as much as he would have liked.

Galway’s missed chances, particularly in the first half, cost them the ability to put even more pressure on Tipperary who were defending well, but the forwards, apart from Jake Morris were struggling to make the ball stick. When they did, they were potent, looking to run at the Galway defence from where they won eleven scoreable frees, converting nine, while the visitors yielded two points from frees as they didn’t take on the Tipp defenders to the same extent.

If Tipperary are to make a strong attempt at retaining the All-Ireland title, it will be the fringe players from last year that will make the difference, and in that respect Seamus Kennedy looked like a player keen to get a place on the starting team, strong on the ball, and rounded off the win with a classy score. However, the fact that John Fleming scored three points was a mark against him.

Oisin O’Donoghue will be pushing to start more in 2026 and while he didn’t score, he had a great battle with one of Galway’s better performers in Cillian Trayers with both having their moments, the Cashel clubman having his hand in a number of scores for others.

Bryan O’Mara held the middle well at centre back but it allowed Rory Burke drift off to score 1-3 with Tipp’s midfield unable to pick him up regularly despite Willie Connors in the first half, and Conor Stakelum in the second, featuring prominently.

All in all, a solid start to the National League!