A minor source of comfort
What a contest, and what a display by Waterford. I’m a happy man today that I managed to get into Semple Stadium yesterday to see all of this game.
As a unit, Waterford were brilliant, really well coached. Every man did his bit for the team, but I have to pick out a few lads. The Waterford goalkeeper, Stephen O’Keeffe, for several absolutely outstanding saves; Phillip Mahoney at centre-back, almost a clone of Ken McGrath – he even ran like him; his two wing men, Darragh Fives and John Dee, covered that line superbly; midfielder Fináin Murray and his partner Martin O’Neill, what a free-taker; centre-forward Brian O’Halloran, really mobile, and what pace; and corner-forward Ian Gagley – not much of him, but boy can he hurl, and is he a bould little so-and-so, just what you want in a corner-forward.
They were underdogs coming into this Munster final yesterday but were far too good for Tipperary from start to finish. As well-coached a team as I’ve seen in a long time, well done to manager Jimmy Meaney and his team, well done to all the players. Well done also to the Tipperary minors for the part they played in this really entertaining match; they’re still in the All-Ireland series, and still have a chance to improve.
After that match finished, I sat back, appetite whetted, ready for the main course. Unfortunately, far from the filet mignon we were all expecting, this turned out to be a mish-mash of a game, all rice, no meat. I said on Saturday that regardless of all the pre-game GAA 125th celebrations, what I was hoping for was a good game, a repeat, perhaps, of the drama of the 1984 final, the centenary celebrations. We got nothing of the sort. Waterford had a tremendous start, roared into a 1-2 to 0-1 lead, which could have been ever more if they’d taken all their goal chances, and I thought ‘this is it, this is the game we’ve been waiting for’. Tipperary came back, and just kept on coming. Going back to Saturday again, I said about Waterford that the one big failing they have is that when they concede a goal, the heads tend to drop; well, they conceded three in the first-half yesterday, three in 10 minutes, and by the time half-time came their heads were almost to the floor.
Their defending in this period was almost comical and were it not for the heroic Brick Walsh at centre-back, God only knows what kind of hole Waterford would have been in at the break – the man was brilliant. Brilliant also for Waterford in this half was John Mullane, simply unstoppable on his current form. Stephen Molumphy was also doing his best in this half but should have been brought out the field much sooner.
Again though I go back to another major criticism I have of this Waterford team, their individualism, and the longer this game went on the more evident this became. What, for example, was Eoin Kelly doing back inside his own half, and well inside his own half, taking frees, when he was so badly needed under the dropping ball up front? Glory-hunting, that’s what he was doing, the kind of thinking that keeps holding back this Waterford team. Waterford can take some credit for the comeback but make no mistake about it, this was a much bigger defeat than the four points between them at the end would suggest. Tipperary were in cruise control for the second half.
Which brings me to Liam Sheedy’s team. Tipperary have bigger ambitions than Munster this year – on the evidence again of yesterday, they have a long way to go yet before anyone can consider them a threat to Kilkenny. Their full-back line was in trouble early on, but I couldn’t understand the move of outstanding wing-back Paraic Maher to full-back, when Tipp had the option of shifting Declan Fanning – a man who won an All Star in the position two years ago – back to the edge of the square. It wasn’t that Maher played badly – he continued to excel – but he was needed at wing-back. Full-back line apart, another major area of concern for Tipp has to be their half-forward line where they’ve no real ball-winner. They won a lot of puck-outs in the first half especially, but every ball has to be almost perfect before they can compete. Pat Kerwick, John O’Brien and Seamus Callanan are all very good players in the loose, but winning the hard ball? They had no-one yesterday who could even compete with Brick Walsh in this area. Problems for Liam Sheedy here, no doubt about it. Thankfully for Tipperary, then, he has the likes of Eoin Kelly who seemed back to his best before having to go off at half-time with a hamstring injury, and Lar Corbett. Lar was the outstanding player for Tipperary; scored 2-2 from play but his work-rate for the full 70 minutes was an example to everyone else. Of most concern, however, for Liam and his management team, is the way his team just fades out of games, disappears for long periods.
People might look at this final scoreline in years to come, 4-14 to 2-16, and think it was a great game. It was far from that. This game was over at half-time, and only Tipp’s lethargy allowed Waterford to gain some respectability. At half-time the captains of the last 25 winning teams in Munster were introduced to the crowd, all great hurling men; a sign of how poor this game was, however, I noticed several of them leaving with still about 10 minutes to play, and I wouldn’t blame them. I ran into the great Jimmy Doyle after the match, looking well, also met Tommy Dunne, another Tipp great, also still looking very fit. They were happy with the Tipp win but I wonder, will they be as happy come September? This team is young but must grow up fast, or this year will be gone again.
On Galway/Clare, less said the better. Very disappointing, no matter what county you’re from, and another poor match. Overall, not a great weekend for hurling, but that minor match gives us hope.
Final word, and it’s a request to the hurlers of Ireland; the next time a yob runs onto the field while the game is going on, as in Thurles yesterday, would they please just redden their arses with a belt of a hurley, and not bother wait for stewards or guards? The field is sacred ground, a place for the players and officials only. Hopefully we won’t see that again this year.
