PADDY STAPLETON column - Tipp need to show they want it more

BACK MAN'S JOB

Paddy Stapleton

 

Scrap the Laois game - anything accomplished, or not, will be of very little significance against Wexford next Sunday in Croke Park.

Questions have been swirling in Tipperary since the Munster final and it’s time for answers. We lost for the second year in a row to Limerick and we took a hammering from every direction. From supporters in the stand, to a journalist who more or less accused us of having a drink problem (the truth being that the panel had not had a drink for two months before the game, including after the League Final against Kilkenny) - doubts were setting in no matter where you looked.

My hope and gut feeling is that we will see a hurt and intensity that we haven’t seen this year so far, even in the opening number of championship rounds. Although anyone regularly listens or reads what I say will know that I put massive emphasis on tactics, or the X’s and O’s, I do believe against the Model county it will be more about the John’s and Joe’s. Against Laois it was obvious that players were not all ‘in the moment’ - there was a lack of urgency and intensity – players were thinking too much about themselves. How they were playing, how many balls they got on, did their man get a score. If any player is playing inside their own head against Wexford then we will be flying down the M7 with Croke Park in our rear-view mirror before you can say ‘Junction 14’.

It’s obvious that Bonner has been a loss in the physical stakes but there just needs to be a rawness on every line of the field. A competitive edge not seen for a long time, we need to be willing to go to dark places looking for aggravation and confrontation. Of course you need to use your brain but that has to be on autopilot from now on. Move and hit first, think second.   

 

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