We are fighting for our lives - Bonnar
By Shane Brophy
Colm Bonnar has enjoyed many great days with Tipperary as a player, but as manager, Sunday’s defeat by Clare will be one of the lowest.
“Going in thirteen points down at half-time, we didn’t think Clare would have that start,” he admitted.
“We were in a good place physically, mentally, we thought we were bringing a big fight to Clare, particularly on our own patch here.
“I thought it was fairly even at the start, they got a goal and a couple of points, but it could have been 1-4 each, a goal would have helped us settle in the game, but the longer the game went on the more hard luck stories there were.
“Clare got the momentum and after that second and third goal they really tore at us, they had a hunger about them I thought our lads would have. They brought huge fight and we did regroup in the second half but it’s difficult to come back from a thirteen point deficit.”
Overall, it was a flat Tipperary performance, even failing to build on the two second half goals didn’t provide a spark to put Clare under any scoreboard pressure.
“It’s hard to put a finger on it,” Bonnar continued, “but you have to give credit to Clare, they were full value for what they did today.
“Like Waterford, we had a target on their backs for maybe six or seven weeks, and we were Clare’s target for the last few weeks - they probably saw what we were about in Walsh Park - and they came at us one-hundred miles an hour. It’s just disappointing we left ourselves so much to do at half-time.
“We came out and fought hard and got 2-9 with the breeze, we got a quick goal at the start of the second half. We have a young team and need to build momentum, but we missed three or four point chances, to get it back to eight points. You have a fighting chance but when they went wide it deflated us more.
“We came out and started winning hard ball we were losing in the first half. We got into scoring (positions) in the first fifteen minutes of the second half, we had an awful lot of the play but we need more on the scoreboard, to threaten Clare more and put doubt in their heads.
“When that didn’t happen they regrouped and came back at us and got some big scores to keep that gap between us. The gap was down to seven points which isn’t a lot in hurling but we need to be more clinical, similar to Walsh Park.”
Tipperary created four good goal-scoring chances but the manner of the three first half goals conceded was equally frustrating.
“They seemed to cut us open very quickly once they got a run and they opened it,” Bonnar agreed.
“Now, Hogie made two tremendous saves off two of the shots and normally if you get some kind of luck, you deflect it over the bar, you deflect it wide or someone comes in, the save is made, it was just the story of the day. They were just so quick on top of everything, in that first kind of 20/25 minutes. It made us look a bit flat footed. That’s something we have to revisit.
“You know, we had chances as well. Against a team, when Clare are taking theirs, we just needed to kind of give ourselves some hope of staying in the game. Those three goals really pushed the game to a place where we didn’t think we would be.”
With two losses in the space of a week, Tipperary have to win their final two games to have any chance of prolonging their season and in the next two weeks up to facing All-Ireland champions Limerick, is going to tell a lot out the mental toughness of the squad.
“Look, it’s all about building this team, it’s about building leaders,” Bonner added. “It’s about building players and letting them build those bonds and connectivities that you need when you’re on the field, when you are fighting for your life.”
He added: “These players were fighting for their life.
“In fairness, they brought a big fight in the second half. Like I think we hit fifteen wides and I think we hit something similar below in Walsh Park, so we are not doing ourselves any favours, and we definitely had two goals in the first half, if not two again in the second half.
“We are not doing ourselves favours. Maybe that comes with experience or maybe but yeah, it’s something that would give us a handle on the game where we can take the scores when we do create scores. We did create scores and Clare created scores. I can only look at our side of it. We did create enough to bring the game back into the melting pot, but it just didn’t happen for us.”