New rules playing to Tipp’s strengths so far

By Shane Brophy

Last Saturday was a day for the real Gaelic Football die-hard. A murky, drizzly, breezy day welcomed those that descended on Clonmel Sportsfield to watch a division 4 National Football League game.

The call had gone out from manager Philly Ryan for more of Tipperary’s football league games to be played in the football heartland of South Tipperary, and in fairness, the supporters responded in good numbers, and will have another opportunity to host again in round 7 when Wicklow come to town, a game Tipperary will hope will have something at stake.

Before then, Tipp’s only other home game against London is pencilled in for a double-header at FBD Semple Stadium with the senior hurlers clash with Cork on February 22nd. This also affords an opportunity for a larger number of supporters to see the trial rules in action and if last Saturday is anything to go by, they can’t say they won’t get value for the admission price.

In such tricky conditions, it was hard not to think that this game if played under the old rules would have been a turgid affair, fifteen men behind the ball with a lot of lateral passing over and back before trying to create an opening. Some of that still remains, Tipperary in particular more cautious in possession than Longford who tended to put more pace into their attacks, particularly on the counter which caused Tipp no end of problems.

This is one of the risk/rewards with this trial rule where teams have to keep three players up the field and it certainly led to more space while it should also lead to the return of more one-on-one defending rather than the protection in numbers afforded by sweepers in recent years.

Much as been said about the 12v11 aspect of attacking with the goalkeeper allowed to come forward but neither side elected to bring their keeper out which helped things as well.

The solo & go has been regarded as one of the successes so far and you could see both teams keen to get the ball moving after being fouled. The rule that allows a player four yards to run into without being challenge is huge, but will take time for players to adjust as twice Longford tried to slow the free down, old rule mentality, which resulted in the ball being moved 50-yards up field, one of which ended up in a point for Sean O’Connor, the second seeing O’Connor electing to take it from outside the two-point arc and was unlucky to see it tail wide.

There is no doubt that the two-point scoring arc is going to be a game-changer. Players are taking on more long range shots than they were, and, in fairness, few were stupid shots either.

In many ways, Mark Russell’s match-winner could have been classed as that, such was the angle he was at, almost on the 21-yard line out close to the stand side-line but such is his proficiency in his long range shooting, he made it look almost routine to a rousing cheer from the fans as the Tipp Tipp Tipp chant rang around the ground.

While his second two-pointer was the match-winner, his first in the 42nd minute was arguably the more important as it ignited Tipp into life, after they started the second half slowly, seeing the two-point half time deficit stretch out to six, and it could have been nine but for a superb Shane Ryan save.

Another inadvertent impact of the two-point shot is more balls will drop short into the square, and this led to Micheal Freaney beating the Longford keeper to one such shot and forced it into the net to bring the team right back into the game.

From there, it was score for score with Longford always able to keep their noses in front with Matthew Carey pulling the strings in the middle of the field and they had lively attackers in Oran Kenny, Cathal McCabe and particularly Aaron Farrell who contributed four from play off the bench.

This was despite Tipperary dominating the middle of the field, particularly under the long kickouts, another feature of the trial rules with restarts now having to travel beyond the 40-metre arc with Longford in particular not prepared to take many risks, going long to midfield where Tipp has a major height advantage with Mark Russell, Freaney, Ben Comerford and Cathal Deeley extremely impressive, with Deeley also to the fore in a creative sense prior to going off with a minor ankle injury. Tipp keeper Shane Ryan was much more adept to finding his men which is another plus.

This is very much a new-look Tipperary team with only six players remaining from the 2020 Munster Championship win, however, from this early stage, the players seem to know their roles, and look comfortable in what they are being asked to do, even if they can be a lot better in many aspects, particularly in terms of turning the ball over cheaply in the attacking third. More penetration is needed from deep, and certainly the pace of Jack O’Neill off the bench was eye-catching, a player very much in the Brian Fox mould.

With three points from four going into their first rest weekend, there is an air of positivity that hasn’t been around Tipperary football for some time but talk of promotion won’t be allowed for the moment.

A clash with Waterford is up next on Saturday week, back in Dungarvan where they endured defeat in the championship last year, one that they will be keen to avenge at the first time of asking.