New look Tipp have to learn on the job

By Shane Brophy

The new era for Tipperary senior football might have begun with a losing start on Saturday night, but there were elements to be encouraged about in the long term.

On paper, losing to Carlow is a poor result, and at the end of the day, it’s a results business, but Tipperary are coming from a place where they are rebuilding.

It’s only just over three years since the high of the Munster title win in November 2020 but on Saturday night, just Shane O’Connell, Jimmy Feehan and Steven O’Brien remained from that side, while Paudie Feehan was a used sub back then.

With only Evan Comerford and Conor Sweeney to return from injury, it is as good as a full rebuild for new manager Paul Kelly who was forced to hand no fewer than five league debuts on Saturday night, including a completely novice half-back line in James Morris, Stephen Grogan, and Kieran Costello, while in the half forward line, former Lattin-Cullen juvenile Shane Neville, who now plays his football with Cratloe in Clare, was one of Tipp’s bright points on the night.

In modern Gaelic football, the role of the goalkeeper is now so important and with Evan Comerford ruled out late on, Jack Rodgers was handed his first start and acquitted himself well, finding his men with all bar three of his kickouts, also making one sharp save, and almost conjured up a last gasp goal when Tipp were in desperation mode.

With a new team, you want to see signs high energy to their play and there was with the ball moved quickly, much quicker than Tipp’s last two years. However, with a team still finding their feet, that kind of play, when it breaks down, can come against you as it did on numerous occasions and Carlow had quality players in the like of Mikey Bambrick, Ross Dunphy and Darragh Foley to make penetration runs through the Tipp defence.

Carlow are five years on the road under manager Niall Carew and you could see the difference between an experienced and novice team in the way Carlow used the ball, as they had the greater composure, an example of which was their 31st minute point which culminated a period of possession of well over two minutes.

On the flip side, Tipp looked to make the killer pass too often and promising attacks broke down with greater composure needed but that will come as a greater understanding between the players develops.

The brand of football Tipperary looked to play was easy on the eye, attacking with pace, and keeping three players up front whenever possibly with new vice-captain Sean O’Connor really stepping up in a scoring sense with nine points, three from play, using his power and size to great effect, but two shots dropping short into the goalkeeper, one which ended up in the net at the other twenty seconds later, was an indication of the sharp reality of missed chances and not putting the ball dead at this level.

In the first half, Tipperary conceded the Carlow kick-out and it certainly allowed the Barrowsiders to gain a foothold in the game and they had the pace, power, and quality players to turn it into scoring opportunities.

But when Tipperary pushed up on the Carlow kickout just before half-time, forcing goalkeepers Johnny Furey and sub Ciaran Cunningham to go long, they got a lot of joy with Steven O’Brien and Jack Kennedy dominating midfield, and provided the platform for Tipperary’s second half fight-back from four points down at half time, but crucially were unable to get their noses in front.

That lack of inexperience also came against Tipp when they found themselves with a numerical advantage on 50 minutes after Colm Hulton was sent off. Tipp were well set to kick on for victory, but Carlow dug in and crucially understood that to survive they had to be patient and pick Tipp off on the counter-attack. And they did that, although with the help of more naïve play as Tipp almost had all fourteen outfield players in the Carlow half on 63 minutes when a wayward pass was intercepted by Mikey Bambrick on his own 45-yard line, but he only had Aaron Amond for support and one ball over the top saw the wing back have half the pitch to run into and with goalkeeper Jack Rodgers already on his heels, was able to gain possession, run on, and score the decisive goal.

To their credit, Tipp stayed coming despite being five points down but couldn’t get the goal they realistically needed to win the game.