O’Brien bitterly disappointed at missing out on another final
By Thomas Conway
Disappointment comes in different shades, at different times, but for Tipperary last weekend, it felt pretty bleak.
Fair enough, it was only the league. Fair enough, there are more important titles to contest. But success breeds success, and nothing prepares a team for the big day like a taste of the big day in late spring.
Perhaps, when all is said and done, Tipp will look back on last weekend’s events and chuckle and wonder why it all felt so significant. But make no mistake, this Tipperary team is craving silverware, craving a shot at the big time, craving a final appearance. Make that breakthrough, you feel, and suddenly other doors might start to open. Suddenly the task of taking on Kilkenny or Galway or Cork might not feel so daunting. Not that Tipp are intimidated by those teams, but you get the point.
Denis Kelly and Tipp now have two choices. Wallow in the disappointment and the dejection of it all or channel the rage into something constructive and bounce back stronger.
They’re going to choose the latter. So, says one of their marquee forwards, last year’s joint-captain Grace O’Brien. The Nenagh Éire-Óg clubwoman has been outstanding in this year’s league campaign, picking passes, shooting points, and developing into a role not dissimilar from that of Cian Lynch. She’s a true playmaker with an attacking edge. She’s also refreshingly honest and doesn’t seek to hide the emotional toll which last weekend took on the Tipperary players.
“There’s huge disappointment there from the weekend,” she said.
“We went into with very clear goals in terms of what we wanted to achieve, and unfortunately we didn’t achieve them.
“I think a lot of girls are disappointed because of the manner of the defeat, the last minute free. Something similar happened against Galway last year - it was the same thing, a last minute free. And you know, we’ve set high standards for ourselves this year, so we’re just devastated now that we’re not in a league final. It’s as simple as that.”
However, as previously mentioned, O’Brien truly believes that Tipp have the mental fortitude and the resilience to bounce back from this most sickening of set-backs. The league is just one chapter in a three-part season. There are provincial honours to claim, and an All-Ireland championship to contest. But it isn’t just about motivation. O’Brien feels that Tipp need to critically analyse precisely what went wrong last Saturday in Piltown. They need to truly learn from the experience, learn the act of winning tight games by fine margins.
“I think that right now, at the moment, it’s still very disappointing and the girls are still kind of coming to terms with it,” she continued.
“But we’re going to regroup, we’re going to get back together at the end of the week. And I think we’ll be well able to channel that disappointment, that frustration, into positive motivation going forward. Because we know ourselves, there is a lot more in this team. So, look, it’s very frustrating at the moment, but once we get back together we’ll look at the game in detail and we’ll pick it apart, and hopefully we learn from it.”
That process of post-match analysis won’t be easy. The Tipp players will be tearing their hair out and clawing their faces as they watch, but it must be said, they didn’t do a whole lot wrong. Denise Gaule’s final free was a relatively harsh call, although this correspondent would say that, wouldn’t he? Still, there are a multitude of positives to take both from Saturday’s performance and from Tipp’s displays throughout the league in general. All is not lost. Far from it. There are bigger days to come.