Third Quarter proves Tipperary’s downfall once again

Much was made of Tipperary’s third quarter against Limerick in the Munster Hurling Final where the Treaty men recovered a ten point deficit at half time to lead by two points by the water break in the second half.

At half time against Waterford, Tipperary trailed by one point and we can be certain that Liam Sheedy called on his players to put everything in to the next seventeen minutes of the game as he had players on the bench motivated to come in to finish the job. What transpired was not a collapse, or any lack of effort, but a lack of accuracy.

Waterford won the third quarter by 1-7 to 0-3 which would suggest that Tipperary team did not come out of the dressing room for the second half. The opposite is true as Tipperary turned over Waterford on 12 occasions in the third quarter compared to the Deise’s 13 turnovers.

Both teams secured 57% of their puck outs and both teams had eight shots in that third quarter. The problem for Tipperary was that Waterford generated eight scores from eight shots while the Premier County only converted three scores from their shots.

Waterford took advantage of turning over Tipperary in the third quarter by scoring 1-6 from turnovers while Sheedy’s men only generated 0-3 from turning over Waterford on twelve occasions.

This all left Tipperary with a mountain to climb and it was a one that was nearly scaled but for the hurl of Waterford keeper Shaun O Brien.

While the results this year have been disappointing for Tipperary at senior, under 20 and minor level, now is not the time to play the hurler on the ditch role and mouth from the sidelines. It is time for everyone in this county to come together and improve the structures in our schools, clubs and at the developmental level underage.

We have now been passed out by counties like Cork and Limerick in this area and the time to roll up the sleeves is now rather than waiting for the county to hit rock bottom.

We have many excellent people in the county and it wasn’t so long ago that our current senior manager was talked about as a candidate for one of the tops jobs in GAA. This is not the time to get rid of people out of roles, it is time to keep everyone together and improve the systems in our county which keep the county successful as we move in to a new era of how hurling is being played.

The Games Development Officers in our county need more support as they are being stretched as they cover a vast amount of clubs and schools.

We suffered a famine at senior level from 1971 to 1987 and its very important that we don’t let the confidence and arrogance that is gleaned from the Senior teams performances act as a barrier to the coaching and detail applied to hurling throughout the county at all levels? Lets stop the potential famine before it begins!