Bouncing back

IN ALL FAIRNESS

Such is the time of the year, this column has been a little bit and miss in the last few weeks, largely due to time constraints, but also due to the sheer volume of sport in this part of the country, which is a credit to the personnel involved and how and why it remains such an important fabric of community life.

There is no quiet time of the year anymore. Even the winter months which used to have smaller sports sections are now as big as they would be in summer with Gaelic Games going all year round between club and county, Nenagh Ormond’s rise to the top division of the All-Ireland League, local soccer, athletics, tennis, horse & greyhound racing, it never stops and is why we don’t do an end of year sports review because one year just rolls into the next, there really isn’t time to sit back and reflect, you have to move on quickly.

It is why I find the mental side of sport most fascinating, particularly the ability of modern sportspeople to put disappointment behind them very quickly. It is down to the value of preparation and why the likes of Caroline Currid with the Limerick hurlers and Cathal Sheridan with the Tipp hurlers are so important in a high performing sporting environment.

Previously, defeats would have worn heavily on players, and form would decline. It still does to some extent but it can be nipped in the bud quicker in a modern sense by accepting the past is the past, you can’t change the result, the only thing you can control is getting ready for the next challenge. It is why I never fear a team more than when they come off a loss and why Clare are a more dangerous animal for the Tipperary senior hurlers on Saturday week.

As Brian Cody regularly said, “each game takes on a life of its own” and Clare are too talented of a side, and too proud of a county, not to seek personal redemption when they arrive in Thurles, and that’s what makes them even an more dangerous proposition.

As good as Limerick were, Clare made it easy as well, they never got to the pitch of the game, their touch was off, intensity lacking, and when you have a team not at it, and a team on it as Limerick were, you get a one-sided game like that, similar in many ways to Tipperary’s home league encounter against the Shannonsiders in February.

It’s hard to understand why Clare were so sluggish, particularly because it was set up for them to be anything but, fresh off a weekend off, and having a home game against their greatest rivals, although a wounded Limerick side who showed why, on their best day, remain the best team in the country.

The fact that Limerick were missing Cian Lynch and Aaron Gillane shouldn’t have softened the minds of the Clare players; maybe it increased the pressure on them that they had to win with their opponents minus two of their best players.

Then, there is the possibility that the Clare players and management built up the game so much in training over the last week, that when it came to matchday, mentally they were drained a little, enough for them to make the errors you wouldn’t associate with them.

Sure, as day, they’ll be a different team when they rock up to FBD Semple Stadium on Saturday week, a venue they like and have as good a record against Tipperary as we do in Ennis since the round-robin format started. This is where a strong start from Tipperary would be important to play on any element of damaged confidence that Clare might hold over from the Limerick game.

In advance, Cork and Limerick were tipped by many to be two of the three teams to come out of Munster, and nothing has changed so far on that score, so this round 4 match-up between Tipp and Clare was going to be the decisive in who might be hurling into June.

That’s unless Waterford really throw the blaa among the pigeons if they were to take down Cork this Saturday evening. They certainly have the firepower to go toe-to-toe with the rebels but conceding 2-33 and 1-30 so far is their Achilles heel as to why they haven’t more points on the table. Tidy that up and they could get the win and really put the pressure on both Tipp and Clare.

There has been increasing chatter about the imbalance between the Munster and Leinster Championships, and that is a given, and maybe a format change might be needed. Be careful what you wish for, Leinster football was a dead-duck for fifteen years, now its wide open as Dublin slip back to the pack. Will Munster stay dominant forever? It won’t, so why would you want to mess with something that is working, even if it means two good teams don’t progress any further. If you are fourth or fifth in Munster, do you have any business still competing for the Liam MacCarthy?