The Ups and Downs are dizzying

IN ALL FAIRNESS

As the senior hurling game petered out at FBD Semple Stadium on Saturday evening, the public address announcer informed the 32,327 in attendance that an exit point from the ground wasn’t available due to a burst water pipe, summing up aptly the end of Tipperary’s championship hopes.

Last year’s All-Ireland success was as glorious as it was unexpected. The feeling was that having won it ahead of schedule, Tipp were in a great place to build on it, if not retaining the Liam MacCarthy, but to at least make a strong defence of it. That the bare minimum of getting out of Munster wasn’t achieved is bitterly disappointing, even accounting for the calibre of the opposition that is there in the province. This what makes the exit feel a disappointing as 2024 as bar the first half against Waterford, Tipp only showed their best in fits and starts and that just won’t do in the cut and thrust of championship.

As much as could have been done right to give them the best chance of doing themselves justice off the back of an All-Ireland success was done with the team holiday and the medal presentation gotten out of the way in November before collective training was allowed to resume. It was as much to say, 2025 is over, 2026 is here.

The players also carried themselves impressively well. They enjoyed and accepted the plaudits that came their way without any stories of them letting themselves down off the field.

But the one problem success can have is can sate hunger and it is hard to get away from that being the primary reason why the team have underperformed this year. As much of the frustration is the inconsistency as Liam Cahill pointed to post-match when he said: “Unfortunately, this particular group have a history of doing this and we know that and we try to address it and we go about it really well on the hurling field, on the training field and hope that we bring it to the match day. But when we start hurling in fear, with not being able to hurl that ball out and putting our hand out looking for it and making sure that we're giving options to the men on the ball, when we don't do that, we're a really moderate team.”

It's a blunt assessment but it is the harsh truth and it is not a case of the manager throwing the players under the bus, he is aware as anyone that the management take their share of the blame, it’s a collective responsibility, as it is when a team wins as well.

The frustrating aspect is the ups and downs are dizzying. Tipp have now won just 7 of the 27 games in the round-robin format, and of the 14 at home, there have been just 3 wins, two against Waterford and one against a Limerick side in 2019 who rested three key players for the game. It’s an awful record. And yet, despite that Tipp have won two All-Ireland’s in that time, second only to Limerick. Figure that one out.

When you reflect on why the Kilkenny and Limerick hurlers and the Dublin footballers were so consistent winning All-Ireland titles on a regular basis, there is a correlation between how well they went in the league in the same year. With the modern inter-county calendar, there isn’t the time anymore to separate the league from championship, so if you are not on it in the league, it is hard to switch it on for championship.

Tipperary’s league this year was moderate, three wins, a draw and two losses, not bad but there was no momentum coming into the championship. This was in comparison to last year when Tipp competed strongly in the league, winning five of their six games, reaching the final. While it didn’t go well against Cork, it was a bonus game ahead of the championship and didn’t derail Tipp in any shape or form by the time they locked horns with Limerick two weeks later.

This year we were hoping the four weeks to the start of the championship, and indeed the three weeks leading up to the Clare game, Tipp would find something to spark them but hope isn’t a good thing to be relying on.

Training this week will be a difficult place for the players to be facing into a game with nothing at stake. However, there is everything at stake to represent the jersey with pride and for some it might be their last, and for others it will be an audition for whether they have a future at this level or not.

For those who purchased their tickets in anticipation of something being at stake, it is important to show up, as the Clare fans last year. It’s easy to follow a team going well; it’s when the thing isn’t when the staunch & gold supporters stand tall.