Tipp showing signs of getting back to what they do best

That was more like it!

They say that sun brightens the mood and certainly Tipperary’s 4-day training camp in Spain last week seemed to do the trick as they produced their most dominant display for some time when handing Cork a thirteen point thumping on Sunday.

While taking into account the awfulness of the Cork performance, barely laying a glove on Tipperary at times, particularly in the second half, there was much to be pleased about in the way Liam Sheedy's men went about their business.

Concerns over their preparedness for such a key game, off a busy training week which they needed to win to have a chance of making a league quarter final, were batted aside pretty quickly as there was a sharpness and speed of thought that had echoes of this team at their best in their run to the 2016 All Ireland title.

One swallow doesn’t make a summer and there’ll be no one getting carried away based on one game but it was a performance the team badly needed to generate some positive momentum and prove not only to all challengers, but to themselves that they are still a force to be reckoned with.

All along there was the sense that we weren’t seeing the best of this Tipp team so far in the league. The focus up to now had been on fitness but there were glimpses against Wexford and Kilkenny that the fluency, which has been for so long the calling card of Tipp at their best, was coming.

But no one expected such a marked improvement in the space of two weeks from the Kilkenny game and it would seem the dry sod of Alicante allowed the team to get much needed ball work done and the evidence was in Pairc Ui Rinn for all to see.

 

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