Realisation of the road Tipp still have to travel

“There aren’t many tougher propositions in hurling than playing a high-flying Cork team in their own backyard as Tipperary prepare go into the lion’s den for the National Hurling League Division 1A final on Sunday.”

This statement was the first paragraph of last week’s match preview in this newspaper, and it rang true as Tipperary proved to be the slaves for the baying hoards of rebels players and supporters who ended a 27 year wait for the National League title in style.

Tipperary had beaten Cork in the group stage back in February, but Pat Ryan’s charges were overwhelming favourites coming into the final rematch, off the back of impressive wins over Kilkenny, Clare, and Galway in the meantime.

Those Tipp supporters who managed to get their hands on tickets, went down to Leeside more in hope than expectation, feeling a good performance to take into the championship would have been acceptable, bit this wasn’t it.

This league campaign has been good for Tipperary, coming from a low base after a disappointing 2024 campaign. Not many would have foreseen getting to the final before it started, but Sunday’s outcome was a reminder that of the way Tipp still have to go.

For three quarters of the contest, there was little to separate the sides, but when Cork went through the gears in the eighteen minutes up to half time when they outscored Tipperary 3-8 to 0-4, it was a sobering experience similar to last year’s championship defeat in Thurles.

Unlike then, Tipp didn’t throw in the towel and while they never looked like recovering the thirteen point half time deficit, they played to the very end, but were well beaten by a much better team, one playing with extreme belief and confidence at the moment.

It also showed that for all the progress Tipp have made so far this year, when they bleed, they still bleed heavily and stemming that flow is something that needs to be addressed.

The fear going down to Leeside was how would Tipperary cope with the pace and power of Cork, not well it as it proved, but in the key period of the game they did get a lot of help from Tipperary.

Two of Cork’s three goals were avoidable, Tipp turning the ball over cheaply when they should have had the situation under control. Modern hurling has many key facets, including pace and power, but possession is also another; when you have it, you cannot carelessly give it away as opponents won’t give it back, and will turn it into scores, and quickly.

Tipperary had made progress in this regard in the league so far but on Sunday, under pressure, they went back to playing too many straight 50-60 yard balls into the forwards, not enough to the advantage of their teammates, although they showed in the first twenty minutes when they did get decent service what they could do with Jason Forde back to his confident best.

Tipperary have shown themselves adept at working the ball through the hands, maybe they got spooked about Cork’s athleticism in the middle third, looking to avoid going through there and fearing turnovers that led to numerous Cork scores.

It is this what manager Liam Cahill referred to in his post-match comments about being “braver with our hurling and trust one another more to transition that ball quicker and get a little bit more movement on getting that ball off especially from my own puckout and stuff like that.”

Tipperary don’t have the ball-winners at the moment to go overly direct and with our two best in Alan Tynan and Gearoid O’Connor unable to impact proceedings, it left winning possession in the half forward line very difficult indeed, with only Jake Morris a regular outlet, although he played predominantly in the full forward line once more.

It was from this half-back platform where Cork got the upper hand with Rob Downey and Tim O’Mahony particularly dominant.

Barry Hogan has had a strong campaign between the posts in terms of his puckouts but on Sunday was a little slow in getting restarts away, although his options weren’t plentiful, a combination of the lack of movement out the field, as well as Cork’s set-up. 24/40 in terms of ball retentions from puckouts is a poor return

Tipp were also under the cosh on the Cork puckout, even with sitting off, looking to crowd the middle third, Patrick Collins was still able to get the mid-range puckouts away to Cormac O’Brien and O’Mahony in particular.

While these malfunctions cost Tipp dearly, better these issues reared their heads now as a refresher for the championship.

Tipperary have experienced hard league final defeats before that have impacted negatively going into the championship and we will only know on Sunday week if this game will have had psychological scars. The focus always has been on championship and if anyone was getting ahead of themselves after the group stage of the league, there is no fear of that now.

There isn’t a better team at the moment with the pace and power Cork have that can sink an opponent.

Tipp will have to meet them again in three weeks’ time, but before then they face a different animal in Limerick who bring a more power game which Tipp have tended to struggle with also.

One thing is for sure, they won’t go far in the championship if the intensity levels are off a notch as they were on Sunday. Maybe, it was the occasion and for many players, playing in front of over 42,000 people was their first time experiencing it and they will come on from that.

Robert Doyle never shied away from his battle with Patrick Horgan; Tipp’s player of the league Michael Breen was superb once more on Brian Hayes. Sam O’Farrell starting on the forty was a left-field move that worked to a degree, particularly his ability to drift into pockets of space from where he scored two points and also had two goal chances, but Tipp didn’t have the killer instinct compared to Cork to convert the openings when they came.

Jake Morris was ever willing, Jason Forde looked back to his best, but both never got the regular quality service from which to do even greater damage while Darragh McCarthy will benefit from this experience, against a seasoned Sean O’Donoghue.

The impact from the bench of Darragh Stakelum, Sean Kenneally and Andrew Ormond was also a positive, although the game had gotten away from Tipp at that stage.

This defeat was a sobering way to go into the championship, a sixth league final defeat in a row going back to 2009 but it won’t be remembered if Tipperary finish in the top 3 in Munster in seven weeks’ time.