IN ALL FAIRNESS - Winning puts bums on seats

There is a lot made about Tipperary being a hurling county, but it doesn’t show in terms of support.

The sight of vast swathes of FBD Semple Stadium decked in red last Sunday must have been a demoralising sight for the Tipperary players coming out onto the field, a group already lacking in confidence, and that one thing they would have been hoped for is backing from the supporters.It didn’t happen. The official attendance last Sunday was 43,973 and it looked as if 30,000 of that was from Cork. It’s damning, it’s worrying, but not that at all surprising.

We are a lot like Kerry football fans in many regards, we love the game but only really get interested full the closer we get to Croke Park. On the RTE GAA Podcast this week, Tipperary All-Ireland winning midfielder Shane McGrath made a number of valid points regarding hurling in the county, including that even in the good days the support wasn’t what it could have been.

I have always been fascinated by the Mayo supporters who have endured so many bitter disappointments over the years, particularly over the last decade, and yet they still follow their team around the country in huge numbers, through thick and thin, with no guarantee of finally winning an All-Ireland.

The same cannot be said about Tipperary. Maybe it is just the era we are now in, not just in Tipperary, but in a lot of counties that the support will turnout when you are winning. Limerick are the perfect example, they travel to games in their hoards now, but when the success dies off at some stage, will they still travel in the name numbers, I doubt it.

Maybe Tipperary’s issue is that from 2008 to 2019, we were largely spoiled with three All-Ireland’s and regular trips up to Croke Park. Last Sunday was just sad, not just off the pitch but on it. Rival observers and supporters aren’t even ribbing Tipp current status, they are actually feeling sorry for us which is a worrying state of affairs altogether.

Where the pick-me-up comes from is hard to predict but a spark is needed from somewhere. It got a start with the minors providing the perfect antidote just over twenty-four hours after the Thurles horror show by claiming a 42 Munster title. It was quite fitting that the John Doyle Cup, presented for the first time for the competition, was won by Tipp and accepted by a fellow Holycross/Ballycahill clubman in Cathal O’Reilly, part of an outstanding defence on the evening.

Still, the players that featured in this game are some five or six years away yet from playing senior, such is the gulf now between both grades, particularly with the strength & conditioning needed just to survive.

The Under 20’s will hope to follow in their footsteps when they take on Cork in their Munster final this Friday evening. This group of players are heading into a period where many of them will form the backbone of what will be a Tipperary revival at senior level in the next years. It’s never the best time to come into a set-up when things aren’t running smoothly but most of them are winners from minor level and they have shown this year so far that they haven’t settled for that and have ambitions for more.

There was one similarity between the senior and minor performances of the last few days and it is how poor Tipperary were at minding the ball. Even in victory, Tipperary’s use of the ball could have been better. All the other Munster teams, Cork, Clare, Limerick and Waterford, rarely send in anything worse than a 60/40 ball into the forwards but in Tipp were are still going too much 50/50 and in the modern game, that is a no no.

It will work at times but more often than not opposition teams come away with the ball as they are too well structured, from where they work the ball and try and create one on ones. More one-on-ones would actually suit Tipp’s skillset much better where we won’t get dragged into physical battles when we largely come out second best.

The ruck now is such an important part of hurling and rarely do we see Tipperary teams at all levels dominate that facet of the game.

Tipperary are an old-school county when it comes to hurling but whether we like it or not, the game is changing and we have to adapt, and quickly.