Bourke not giving up on qualifying
By Thomas Conway
The Tipperary senior camogie team are like a parable from the Old Testament. Deep down, you know there’s something powerful in there, yet on the surface, it’s difficult to make head nor tail of what’s going on.
Sunday’s defeat to Waterford in FBD Semple Stadium raised further questions about the ability of this Tipp side. The players gave their all - they always do. And yet it just didn’t happen for them. They enjoyed their fair share of possession but squandered it with poorly judged executions or hastily timed passes.
Waterford, in contrast, seemed to play with a degree of intelligence, troubling their hosts by working the ball down either flank, where Tipp’s wing-back duo of Ciardha Maher and Mairead Eviston were forced to abandon their usual attacking mindset and revert to a far more conservative, defensive game. The Tipp full-back line was subjected to a barrage of pressure, and although they coped reasonably well at different times during the game, their defensive structure eventually collapsed following the dismissal of Mary Ryan in the fortieth minute.
Tipp may find it difficult to process this loss. They’ve had the upper hand on Waterford for some time, but it all came crashing down on Sunday. Speaking in the aftermath, Tipp joint-captain Julieanne Bourke was typically gracious, acknowledging Waterford’s superiority but remaining upbeat in her assessment of the Tipperary performance. It wasn’t necessarily a bad display from the Premier County. They just lacked conviction, failing to match Waterford’s killer instinct in front of goal.
“When you look at the games between Tipp and Waterford over the past couple of years, there has been almost nothing between us every time,” she began.
“The matches are always fiercely competitive. And then Waterford are a very physical team - when they come at you, when they run at you, they can really do damage. And the difference on Sunday was that they took their chances. I actually think we probably created a good few chances as well, but we were kind of unfortunate in terms of maybe hitting the post, or having their goalie make two or three important saves.”
At this stage, many neutrals may have written Tipp off as realistic championship contenders. They no longer possess the swagger which they carried throughout the National League, and they now face an uphill battle just to escape from the group stages.
Bourke, however, doesn’t see it that way. Question Tipp’s gameplan maybe, but never question their work-ethic or resilience. The Borris-Ileigh woman maintains that there is something special in this group of players - a sort of stoic fortitude which has helped them to bounce back from previous set-backs. She’s confident that they can do so again.
“Look, we have two games left. If we win those then we’re up to eight points, so it’s still up for grabs,” she addedd.
“But the challenge for us now is just to regroup, to recover from this and get back training again. Obviously, it would have been nice to get the win on Sunday, but we’re a resilient team. Some girls have left the panel, others have had injuries, we’ve had to deal with red cards during games, but we just keep going and going. So, there’s still huge positivity within this group of players.”