Momentum, Momentum, Momentum

In All Fairness column

Momentum is such an important aspect in sport; when you have it, you want to ride it but when you lose it, it is hard to get back.

This comes to mind when looking back on Loughmore/Castleiney’s disappointing performance in the defeat to Ballygunner in Sunday’s Munster Club Senior Hurling semi-final. First of all, take nothing away from the four-in-a-row chasing Munster champions who were at their brilliant best. Certainly, the dirty diesel from the nine weeks out of competition post their county final success was gone from their system after their win over Doon in a high quality quarter final.

You knew after that game that Loughmore/Castleiney’s task only had become greater, facing into a trip to Walsh Park also. To have a chance against Ballygunner, you need have everything going for you, so for Brian & Noel McGrath to play despite being struck down with a bug in advance, wasn’t ideal and certainly both we far from their influential best. However, it would have taken something supreme for Loughmore/Castleiney to have won, and by their own high standards they will lament being unable to perform to the level we know they can. The four-week layoff was probably too long of a gap, particularly at this stage of the calendar when momentum is everything.

One hopes this game will stand to them as they shift their focus to football and a Munster semi-final against Eire Og in Ennis next Sunday. They lost to the Clare side in 2021 at the quarter-final stage, after extra time, and one hopes after all they have achieved this year, getting to a Munster Final in one code would be most deserved.

The manner of the defeat in the hurling last Sunday certainly doesn’t help the mood which is downbeat in terms of where the game is in the county. Ballygunner are a top-class side and it would be no surprise if they were to go on and win a second All-Ireland Club title in three years, as they are by far and away the most experienced team left standing, in what has been an outstanding championship so far with Slaughtneil’s extra time win over Cushendall a welcome bonus on RTE last Saturday night, and then the following day, Kilkenny champions Thomastown were brought back down to earth with a thud after an eleven point loss to Westmeath’s Castletown-Geoghegan in the Leinster quarter final.

But back to Tipperary, as competitive as the club championships have become with the streamlined sixteen team formats, the top-end quality is probably lacking at the moment. Now, you can’t have it as a direct correlation to the fortunes of the senior inter-county team, as Waterford have struggled in recent years, yet Ballygunner are one of the best club teams in the country. Indeed, it shows that a lot of the other teams in Waterford would be competitive in Munster, but they just have a behemoth in Ballygunner in their way, and they don’t look like going anywhere any time soon. Indeed, a lot of Waterford’s issues is that they don’t have enough Ballygunner players being the mainstay of their team considering the quality and experience they have.

Tipperary hurling will rise again, I have no doubt. The work is being done at underage level and two All-Ireland Minor titles in three years and a Munster Under 20 this year is a sign of that. It is going to take time for those players to come through so for the moment we are where we are.

There is a realism amongst Tipp supporters that things won’t be as good as they were from 2008 to 2021 when we were largely spoiled, among the contenders for an All-Ireland title on an annual basis. However, we still have to put a team on the field next year, and the extended panel (still unannounced) are undergoing their gym programmes before collective training resumes in just over two weeks time on December 7th.

Over the generations, Tipperary have rightly deemed themselves as the ultimate competitors and don’t shy away from a fight. The players that will be required to play wear the blue & gold next year need to be the ultimate competitors, getting down and dirty, and make themselves hard to beat first and foremost.

The National League and Munster Championship is going to be so hard for Tipperary as they are likely to be the least experienced of the teams they will face but the players should appreciate that is the case and accept the challenge, there is no other way around it. A young team that gets off to a good start in the league gets the supporters behind them, there’s that momentum again!

Liam Cahill is a stubborn man, but stubborn in a good way, and if he can transmit that mentality into his players in the coming weeks, it will go along way to having the players ready in that respect for the significant challenges that are ahead. Tipperary always have hurlers, that has never been an issue, get the mentality and physicality right, there is no reason why Tipp cannot surprise people, both in and outside the county, next year.