Broken down Tipp in need of repair

By Shane Brophy

The Tipperary football supporter is a hardy soul and it is never more tested than when there is a long trip to Ulster. They were on route again on Sunday to Fermanagh when the supporters bus broke down outside Cavan and it provided an apt metaphor for the struggles of the Tipperary team so far in 2023.

The supporters bus managed to get to Ederney for the second half of the game but by which time the outcome was already as good as confirmed.

This division 3 campaign was always going to be tough after stepping up from division 4, adding in the calibre of player lost from the squad since the high point of the Munster Championship success in November 2020, be it through retirement, injury, work commitments abroad or other reasons.

The match programme for Sunday’s game at the picturesque grounds of the St Joseph’s club in Ederney carried a report of the last meeting between Fermanagh and Tipperary in the 2019 National League at Semple Stadium, which was a division 2 clash, which ended in a draw.

From that Tipperary team there were just five survivors in Emmett Moloney, Kevin Fahey, Jimmy Feehan and Jack Kennedy, with goalkeeper Michael O’Reilly coming off the bench. That Tipperary team contained Evan Comerford, Alan Campbell, John Meagher, Steven O’Brien, Liam Casey, Brian Fox, Philip Austin and Conor Sweeney to name eight of the players not available to Tipperary at the moment.

Those players helped provide a great era for Tipperary football over the past decade but the fear was when some players started to drift away, the good days might come to an end and Tipp drift back to being an also ran where there were for much of the time in a National League context.

The quality just is there at the moment, and this isn’t a criticism of the players that are putting in the hard yards. There is no sense of discontent or that players are not giving the effort required, but the basic facts are they aren’t good enough at the moment.

Fermanagh are having a good campaign so far with four wins out of five in the league, but they are no world-beaters. However, what they aren’t doing is beating themselves which is costing Tipperary dearly so far in 2013.

From the outset on Sunday, it was clear that Tipperary, playing into the breeze in the first half, were about playing containment football and to get to half-time in a decent position to kick on, just as they did against Longford a week previous when they produced their best period of play in the second half, with a draw scant reward for what they produced.

However, that containment approach with which to frustrate the home side needed as few a mistakes as possible but in the league so far, Tipp’s mistakes are being ruthlessly punished. Trailing 2-6 to 0-3 at half time, nine points was too much for Tipp to come back from, however, the margin shouldn’t have been that large considering that 2-4 of Fermanagh’s total came from handling errors by Tipperary players far out from goal.

As much as Tipperary’s attacking approach has been blunted by the injuries to forwards Conor Sweeney and Steven O’Brien, they also miss the guile and pace that Bill Maher, Robbie Kiely and Brian Fox used to bring from the half-back line. Without that, Tipp find it hard to penetrate the lines, so they have to be slower and more methodical in their attacked to pierce well drilled defences of modern inter-county football.

A couple of times, Tipp almost had it cracked but the final pass always seemed to let them down, from where Fermanagh countered and quickly. The frustrating thing from those turnovers was the fact that it wasn’t a Fermanagh tackler that forced the ball loose, it was Tipp players losing control of the ball and not only was their scoring chance lost, they handed Fermanagh the ideal attacking weapon.

Being so exposed on the counter-attack to hard-running teams is what is hurting Tipp the most as when they had their defensive shape in tact, they were quite solid and Fermanagh found it difficult to break them down, indeed that 1-5 of their total came from three of their defenders should the difficulty they had in their forwards finding gaps.

But for nine first half wides, Fermanagh could have been out of sight at half time, and to Tipp’s credit they were more competitive in the second half but the damage had been done. There were solid performances from the likes of Colm O’Shaughnessy, the always willing Kevin Fahey and Emmet Moloney, while Paudie Feehan and Jack Kennedy won the midfield battle in the air. Mark Stokes foraged well in the half forward line, as did Teddy Doyle for two points from play, but after that it was a chore.

There might be a chink of light in the impact of Stephen Quirke off the bench as the big full forward provided a target-man and claimed a mark for his own score while he set-up Riain Quigley for their best goal chance. Having a presence on the edge of the square would give Tipp the option of going long, and if they were to lose the ball in the full forward line, they would have numbers back to deal with a subsequent attack from an opponent.

The Tipperary management have two weeks to figure it out before they resume with a must-win game at home to Offaly. With a trip to a high-scoring Westmeath on the final day, the clash with Offaly would appear to be Tipp’s best chance of getting the minimum two points they need to put the pressure on Longford and Antrim in the battle to avoid the drop.

At this stage, it is hard to see where the next point will come from but as selector Tipperary Declan Browne said in the aftermath, they have nothing to lose now and a team with that attitude are a dangerous one to predict.