KILLINAN END - Westmeath were one of Tipp’s crossroads

During Bobby Ryan’s speech after receiving the MacCarthy Cup back in September 1989 he was happy to acknowledge the long and winding road that had ended. Many indeed were the days when it seemed there was no turning between days of despair and better times when the team appeared to be on the threshold of success. When the Borris-Ileigh man thanked the supporters, he did so with a knowing reference to Mullingar which was an unlikely line in post-All-Ireland thoughts. But it was a poignant note for Mullingar symbolised all the slings and arrows of the previous decade.

The Centenary Munster Final has scarcely been bettered since for sheer drama and emotional torture. It was not the only close-run thing against the red menace in those days. Hopes raised by a good Tipp team in 1979 floundered on the rocks of the last days of a great Cork team. In the same way and by the same margin, a decent performance in 1976 had come up short against the same Cork cohort in its embryonic state. In between the blood and bandage had gorged on success while Tipp always took two steps back to correspond with one forward one. A good plucky performance in 1976 did not precursor any achievements in 1977. A very good and promising 1979 was sandwiched by two days to forget in 1978 against Limerick and two years later against Cork when Tipp failed to lay a glove on either.

These were the formative hurling years for Bobby Ryan and by the time he sipped from the cup of success there was no sense of entitlement. The steepness of the climb was fresh and stark in the mind still. Tipp had enjoyed a bountiful experience at under-age between 1976-85 with three Minor All-Irelands and four at Under-21. Any doubts about the raw talent available now made little sense, yet progress at Senior level remained slow and inconsistent.

The reasons were many and complex with perhaps sometimes an over-reaction to the county championships as distinct from a coherent plan to identify and work with the best players across the county. Jack Bergin made an inter-county comeback on foot of Moycarkey/Borris’ altitude in the early 1980s. It is hard to know why he was good enough in 1985 but not 5/6 years earlier.

Part of the problem was the inconsistency of selection panels and an insistence on sticking with the divisional representation. Perhaps selectors became advocates for their divisions as much as the Tipperary team. New selectors brought new players and the upshot was that the only consistency to be found was in contemplating the inconsistency of it all.

The filtering through of the successful under-age teams did, to an extent, address this problem but that too was a slow process. The unpredictable nature of events was evident in 1983. Relegation from the top tier of the National League was Tipp’s fate while Clare won five of their seven matches. Clare lost by a point to Wexford in a League play-off in Thurles, a venue where the Model County had beaten Tipp by eighteen points. Yet, when Tipp-Clare met in the Munster championship in Limerick it was Tipp’s day.

It was during the following year’s National League campaign in the second tier that one of Bobby Ryan’s reference points came into being. Tipp lost to Westmeath in Mullingar and despite them having a decent team at the time a loss to Westmeath was seen as a new low for Tipp. A draw with Kerry cost Westmeath a vital League point, which enabled Tipp and Offaly to be promoted. In the following championship of 1984 Offaly would win Leinster while Tipp would go to the wire in the Munster Final. Yet the reputational damage of a loss in Mullingar for a county not exactly accustomed to Division 2 hurling echoed on.

A couple of years later, despite championship progress, Tipp again found themselves in Division 2, this time failing to climb back up at the first attempt. Among the results of that 1985-86 campaign was a bad beating down in Wexford Park and a 1-18 to 1-11 loss in Mullingar. Followed on by a disastrous loss in the championship down in Ennis when a sizeable lead was given up in defeat to Clare, it can be said that if the dawn was around the corner this was certainly the darkest hour.

While those losses in Mullingar became an emblem for dark days looking back, less well-remembered is that Westmeath lost by just two points to Kilkenny in the 1986 League quarter-final. They were relegated from Division 1 a year later but acquitted themselves reasonably well in the top tier. Galway -then on the cusp of great days - were beaten in Loughrea, while Westmeath must also have really enjoyed a win over neighbours Offaly in Birr. League champions Kilkenny also managed just a two-point escape in Mullingar. Bobby Ryan’s remarks in 1989 certainly struck a chord with many Tipp people. But while lamenting difficult days we can also salute the ability of those Westmeath teams of mid-80s and their hurling tradition.