Jason Forde's effort goes narrowly wide. Photograph: Bridget Delaney

Tipp brought back down to frozen ground

Any sense that Tipperary's opening night win over Clare was the start of things to come was very much dispelled at the Gaelic Grounds last Saturday night.

It was highly unlikely that Liam Sheedy was going to come straight back in an have an immediate impact on Tipperary's fortunes and while the indications were good against the Banner men, All Ireland champions Limerick firmly showed the way Tipperary still have to go to get back challenging the very best.

In some ways falling short to Limerick at this stage might be no bad thing as a win over the All Ireland champions might have painted over cracks that were still there are coming away from the frozen Ennis Road last Saturday night, the Tipp management and players will have been made fully away that they are still a work in progress.

What we saw on Saturday was a Limerick team that are still benefiting from the confidence that comes from being All Ireland champions. Now in their third season under manager John Kiely, they are so comfortable about what they are doing, both with and without the ball, and when in the first half there were being outplayed, they managed to stay in the game, and settling down in the second half, flexed their muscles to ease clear to a seven point victory.

This level of confidence and understanding is what Tipperary are working towards and manager Liam Sheedy will take a lot from the first half performance, in particular, in which they should have had a greater lead of one point by half time with missed chances in front of goal, as well as the concession of a cheap goal on 30 minutes when Graeme Mulcahy got in above Donagh Maher and Brian Hogan to flick a high ball to the net.

 

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