Turnovers and missed chances prove costly for the Premier

The All-Ireland dream died in disastrous fashion for Tipperary on Sunday as they felt the full force of a Mayo side who were in no mood to be on the receiving end of another fairy-tale in this semi-final.

By Shane Brophy

Reflecting on a thirteen-point defeat there are rarely any elements of regret for the losing side but for Tipperary there are many. While Mayo were deserving winners, 3-6 of their impressive total were handed to them by Tipperary errors in possession while the other two goals conceded were also avoidable.

Not only that, while Tipperary scored an impressive 3-13 which would win a lot of semi-finals, they missed another six gilt-edged goal chances as they carved the Mayo defence open regularly but their finishing let them down.

Four of those misses came in a second half when you could argue Mayo took their foot off the gas and still managed some fine scores, however, Tipperary were a lot more forceful and ran harder at the Connacht champions and caused them any amount of problems.

It was hard to blame Tipperary’s management for going with the same game-plan which proved so successful in the Munster Final against Cork, where they defended diligently with a strong structure, however, Mayo are on a different level to Cork and in possession they had the pace and movement to get through the Tipperary wall with ease.

In their run to the Munster title, David Power’s charges played a team no higher than division 3 level and certainly Mayo brought that division 1 intensity to the game in the first half. They also had the physical power and that is where years and years of strength and conditioning work pays off when you see the likes of Colm O’Shaughnessy just bouncing off Cillian O’Connor in the run-up to the second Mayo goal.

With the shackles off in the second half, Tipperary upped the tempo and created plenty of chances, even if they were a more exposed at the back and the likes of Cillian O’Connor, Tommy Conroy and sub Darren Coen feasted on that space.

As underdogs Tipperary needed to get off to a positive start, and they did, even with the missed goal chances from Michael Quinlivan and Conor Sweeney inside the first five minutes. Tipp cancelled out the first Mayo goal within seconds from Brian Fox, however, the first two chances which were denied by David Clarke were key as it would have forced Mayo to chase, even for a brief period.

They were setbacks which can suggest to a team that it might not be their day and certainly there was an element of that throughout the game where Mayo got the breaks, including for their fifth goal as a slip by Alan Campbell created the opening for Cillian O’Connor’s fourth goal, while at the other end sub Philip Austin was denied a goal by the head of Mayo replacement Padraig O’Hora.

However, you make your own luck and certainly Mayo’s aggression and intensity in the hgh press was something Tipperary couldn’t live with in the first half with all four goals utterly avoidable, from Kevin Fahey being turned over in the ‘D’ by Aidan O’Shea from where five seconds later O’Connor fisted to net. O’Connor’s superbly finished second goal had its origins in a turnover of Bill Maher in midfield and three passes later the Ballintubber back was in on goal.

Mayo are too good a side to require a helping hand and Tipperary certainly gave them that with their third goal as Liam Casey’s under-hit pass cross his own 21-yard line left Evan Comerford in no-man’s-land as O’Connor palmed home his hat-trick.

Tipperary were so shell-shocked that they desperately wanted half time to come and in the final play of the half they switched off at a Cillian O’Connor 45 as Diarmuid O’Connor drifted into the square untracked to fist the ball to the net, although it should have been ruled out for a square ball, which summed up the first half from a Tipperary point of view that anything that could go wrong did.

No one likes moral victories in any sport and when Mayo led 5-15 to 1-7 early in the second half, a record All-Ireland semi-final defeat appeared to be in the offing as the descending gloom in Croke Park from the heavy fog provided the apt backdrop for a game that offered much as a contest but delivered very little.

Tipperary had hoped to pressurise the Mayo kickout but in the period that mattered in the first half they only intercepted two with David Clarke able to get short ones away to the wings. However, in the second half, Tipperary dominated the high ball in the middle of the field with Steven O’Brien, Colin O’Riordan and Conal Kennedy taking control, and along with the chances conceded is another area Mayo will be concerned about in advance of the final against Dublin.

It was a tough day at the office for many players, particularly the full back line where Alan Campbell, Jimmy Feehan and Colm O’Shaughnessy struggled with the pace and power of Conroy, O’Shea and Cillian O’Connor who scored 4-14 between them.

Behind them, Evan Comerford could do little with the five goals conceded.

In a well beaten team, Bill Maher was outstanding at wing back while Kevin Fahey also stuck to his task well.

Tipperary would have been hoping for more at midfield in the first half with O’Brien, Casey, Conal Kennedy and Colin O’Riordan but Mayo crowded the middle third from where David Power’s men had few chances to create the overlap regularly.

If there was one disappointing aspect to Tipperary’s play in the first half it is they went to make the killer pass too often. The tactic clearly was to get early ball into Conor Sweeney and Michael Quinlivan to take advantage of their size advantage over Chris Barrett and Lee Keegan and it worked in terms of the goal chances created but after the Fox goal, Kevin McLoughlin was drafted back as a sweeper to give them protection. They needed to vary it more and run hard at Mayo’s defence and when they kicked the ball away loosely, Mayo were able to counter-attack at pace with Eoghan McLaughlin particularly effective while Ryan O’Donoghue was the perfect pivotal to go with the legs of Conor Loftus and Matthew Ruane at midfield.

Tipperary’s 3-13 total was healthy but eight points of that came from frees as they struggled to get clear chances at goal, although Mayo did show their cynical side when in danger, Lee Keegan spending ten minutes in the bin in the second half when denying Michael Quinlivan a clear goal-scoring opportunity while Bill Maher was similarly denied a few minutes later by Eoghan McLaughlin.

Tipperary needed their 2016 All-Star Quinlivan to score heavily and while he worked hard and on another day could have finished with a hat-trick himself, he and Sweeney were well shackled in the main which was always going to be central to Mayo’s game-plan to get other forwards to beat them and on another day they had the chances to say they should.