KILLINAN END - Steeling the mindset

If you accept earlier levels of performance as a guide to future prospects, then Tipp beating Clare in Thurles was always going to be a long shot. And so, it proved, but the manner of Tipp’s performance gave some slight sliver of hope that all is not lost.

A team with just two starters from the 2019 All-Ireland Final – just five years ago after all - gave a decent account of itself and ignored the opportunity to collapse under the weight of Clare scores in the second-half. It is indeed a curious kind of optimism when you are reduced to gleaning such scant consolation.

There is little reason to suggest that Liam Cahill is not the person to lead the county team into the future whatever that brings. If new blood is to be introduced, then surely, he has a knowledge of that cohort like nobody else. Despite the disastrous experience over the Munster campaign this year, there is a certain amount of credit remaining from last year. That can be viewed through a sceptical lens too, of course, with failure to beat Waterford when it really mattered and Galway too in the quarter-final.

Neither of those teams have qualified this year which casts an even more negative light on last year. The recent League semi-final was an unmitigated disaster too and it was always hard to see a comeback from that level of performance. Even the body language and indeed verbal language left much to be desired. A Tipp player said in an interview in the week of that league semi against Clare that he “wouldn’t mind a league medal” which was language to make you wonder. No sense of urgency or a desire to create a winning momentum. Mindset was not in a strong place. A lot remains to be done to rectify an ailing set-up. We are lucky, however, to have a management team from the county and of the county who will be as invested in the outcome as any other supporter of the team.

In contrast you would wonder where Henry Shefflin stands three years into his time with Galway. Some ten players who took to the pitch last Sunday played in the 2018 All-Ireland Final. That would suggest that if Tipp are in for a rebuilding phase Galway are in ground zero territory. It is easy them to point to the dismissal of David Burke as a factor in the outcome of the game, and perhaps it was, but there was no sense of a team with any great structure at any point. The performance against Wexford was also poor and they had a full complement that day.

The reaction to Burke’s sending off varied. Naturally Shefflin thought it was the wrong decision. Interestingly, the experienced referee Brian Gavin thought it was the wrong decision on the basis that he “saw no intent in him [Burke] to injure Fergal Whitely”. This may be so indeed, but it is an extraordinary comment from a referee of such renown given that the rule does not reference ‘intention’. Rule 5.19 empowers, indeed requires, the referee to order from the field of play anyone who “behaves in any way which is dangerous to an opponent”. Ne’er a mention of deliberation or otherwise.

All that said it can be argued that Dublin are lucky to be in a Leinster Final. They were well down the field against Wexford who then managed to concede two late goals giving Dublin a draw. Chances are that they benefited too from the extra man in Salthill, but they did make the most of the opportunity when it was presented. Dublin have always done well against Wexford and Galway. In that sense their results were hardly earth-shattering.

Looking ahead they face one team in Kilkenny against which they tend to come up short. Croke Park’s wide expanse might suit them, but they will need to break a psychological barrier to win this. They had Kilkenny by the throat recently again and failed to close the deal. We will remain sceptical until we actually see them get over the line. But it will be extraordinary if such a modest Kilkenny team manages to win five provincial titles in succession.

If that is extraordinary then what Limerick are heading for is somewhere beyond that. Their second-half performance against Waterford suggests that, despite injuries, they are coming into rude health hurling-wise. Expect them to hit Croke Park like a tornado.

Arguably the big winners over the weekend didn’t puck a ball. Cork will look at the draw now and see an All-Ireland semi-final as a very realistic immediate target. The great losers in the entire championship must be Waterford. Seán Kenneally will not finish the year with an All-Ireland medal but who knows where the influence of his late goal in Walsh Park will end. Without that, Waterford and not Cork would be contemplating autumn gold.