Bonnar hopes to be smiling at home on Monday morning
By Shane Brophy
A Tipperary man managing Waterford and a Tipp man, domiciled in Waterford for many years managing Tipperary!
There is a joke in their somewhere, but the backstory of this Munster Senior Hurling Championship opener next Sunday is as juicy as they come. Added to it is the fact is that Waterford manager Liam Cahill was the front-runner to be the Tipperary boss, but his rejection of that offer opened the door for Colm Bonnar, whose knowledge of the Waterford scene is as deep as any manager from outside the Deise county would want.
“Yeah I live here in Waterford and people are polite enough to me in terms of saying, 'Ah sure, look ye're building anyway,’ said the resident of Dunhill.
“Waterford are on a high. The general feeling here in Waterford is that last year they were beaten by Limerick in the All-Ireland semi-final, the year before they were beaten by Limerick in the All-Ireland final and the Munster final, and the year before that, they were beaten by Limerick in the league final, so they're basically looking at Limerick as the only team that has been getting the better of them over the last couple of years.
“And the fact then that Liam Cahill is manager for Waterford makes it a bit more intriguing as well.
“Waterford people love their hurling. This present bunch of players, they feel can become one of the greatest teams that they've had and that's the expectation they have to carry. These four championship games will tell a lot in terms of where they're at.
“But we're not looking past this first game, we're just going to go hell for leather. The fact that it's in Waterford, I'm living here, doesn't really matter, no. But it would make it easier Monday morning if Tipp won for going to work.”
Having stepped in as Tipperary manager, not only filling the shoes of an All-Ireland winner in Liam Sheedy, but also not being first choice to succeed him with Liam Cahill turning down the opportunity Colm Bonnar is a man who doesn’t worry much about symantics.
He wasn’t a high profile appointment despite his status as a man of strong Tipperary hurling values and success from his playing days of winning 2 All-Ireland & 5 Munster senior titles.
However, he takes over at time when he doesn’t have a core of key leaders at his disposal, some of them ripped away by injury to Padraic Maher, Willie Connors, Seamus Callanan and John O’Dwyer, while Brendan Maher (retired) and Niall O’Meara (time out) stepped away prior to Bonnar taking up the role.
“I was very conscious the first time I went in that a lot of the younger lads, and we're talking lads about 23/24 year olds, they're not really that young, they just haven't gotten an opportunity,” Bonnar said.
“There was a hell of a team there in front of them over the last five or six years and they showed it in terms of winning the All-Ireland in 2016 and 2019. They're difficult to try to move off a team.
“But, yeah, the likes of James Quigley, Brian McGrath, Craig Morgan, Dylan Quirke, Robert Byrne, Paddy Cadell, Ger Browne, Conor Bowe, Gearoid O'Connor, there's so many young lads there, Mark Kehoe and Jake Morris, still young fellas. They're all very, very good hurlers and these lads don't want to be second-best to anyone and they have huge ambition for themselves and huge ambition for Tipperary.
“When you match that in with the likes of Cathal Barrett, Ronan Maher, Barry Heffernan, Noel and John McGrath, Bonner Maher, Dan McCormack, there's huge experience there as well.
“We're very happy with the players that we have. A lot of those younger players, I think we've tried over thirty players in the League and a lot of the players I've mentioned there would have gotten chances during the League. It's just about getting the right mix now and getting that right balance and mixing that youth with the experience.”
The main risk with prioritising the league to look at as many players as possible (30) is a settled team fails to emerge and with that results are jeopardised and from where Tipp had an underwhelming campaign where they won three of their five league games, with their only win of note coming against a Kilkenny side in a poor standard fare in early February.
All that means Tipperary go into this Munster Championship very much under the radar and not given much of a chance against the red hot league champions Waterford.
“Yeah, look - you don’t need much motivation to get lads ready for the championship,” Bonnar added.
“It’s the bread and butter in terms of where players are, and I don’t need to build Waterford up at the moment. They are probably considered the best team in the country, so there’s a target on their back.
“Also, the fact that we are heading into Walsh Park, it’s a very hostile kind of ground and a difficult ground for most teams. It all adds to it, and the fact that we were only down there five or six weeks ago and beaten by ten points. So yeah, we know where we are and what we have to do, and obviously Waterford are on a high at the moment.”
So does Bonnar take any learnings from that 1-28 to 0-21 defeat on March 6th last?
“We started very strong and went into a 9-3 lead and Waterford slowly got themselves back into it. We started the second half a point or two down and played with a breeze, but I thought we started very well and hit maybe seven or eight wides in that first fifteen or twenty minutes, which maybe would have kept us there or thereabouts. But when we didn’t take it, they hit maybe ten points without reply from us and that was a very poor statement from us, so we can’t afford to tune off with this Waterford team.”
Much of the talk around this Waterford side is their ability to get goals, 22 in their seven league games in 2022. The concession of just one last month is something positive Tipp can take into next Sunday’s rematch. However, there remains the nagging feeling that Waterford will go for the jugular to a greater extent this time round and if Tipperary are to pull off an upset win, they will have to get goals themselves at the other end, something they struggled to do prior to the seven against Antrim in their last league game.
“It doesn’t take much to analyse Waterford in the way they are playing,” Bonnar continued.
“They are very aggressive and very direct and have a big running style. Their turnover rate is huge and their counter-attacking is massive.
“They scored five goals against Wexford and hit Cork for four, and it just shows you the danger they have. In all of those games they possibly could have doubled their goal count, such is the ferocity of their ability in terms of running at defences.
“So look, you can get worried about it and say ‘can we handle that?’ But look, it’s been good to see them up close but having said that, we have to counter what they’ve been bringing and it’s very difficult. The power and pace of hurlers these days, if you can break that first tackle and are ruthless enough and create overlaps, there’s goal chances on and Waterford seem to be taking them at the moment.
He added: “We’ll have to raise a few green flags down there in Walsh Park, there’s no doubt.
“When we went down we hit 21 points but didn’t raise a green flag and that took its toll. It’s not like they went to town on us either, they scored one goal but the threat is always there with Waterford. I think even since we played them, they really went for the jugular in the latter part of the league.
“But goals coming at the tight time are huge in championship and can create momentum and momentum for the other team. We won’t purposely go out to….but we’ll be hoping to keep that scoreboard ticking over and not find ourselves in a position where with fifteen or twenty minutes to go there’s only three points in it. But they hit us for ten points without reply, and that can’t happen. At the level we are at, we need to keep that scoreboard ticking over and it’s something we’ll be conscious of for the whole seventy minutes at Walsh Park.”
A loss on Sunday won’t be fatal as Tipperary will still have three more games to get the points they need to progress to the next stage, but there will be no holding back on Sunday from the premier boss.
“I suppose when you look at the different teams, like, Walsh Park is a very difficult place,” Bonnar continued.
“It's one of the tightest pitches I think in Ireland but then they can come up to Thurles and play a different brand of hurling as well. That's an advantage to them, Walsh Park. You look at Cusack Park, it's another hard place to go into, same as Parnell Park.
“Most teams love coming to Thurles, that's where they play their best hurling and that's our home ground. Yeah, it is difficult.
“People say you need to win your home games and our home games are against Cork and Clare. Both those teams love coming to Thurles as well. Anything can happen.
“Obviously, we're going to go and try to win every game and our first game is down in Walsh Park and we're going to go hell for leather and try to win that regardless of what expectations are out there. We believe we have a team capable of doing something in this Championship and upset a lot of the predictions that are out there.”