Bonnar’s charges aim to return Tipp to Premier league

IT can never be a good sign for hurling when Tipperary are an afterthought, but that’s how many think of Ken Hogan’s side when the business end of the championship comes up for discussion.

In Munster, Tipperary rate as fourth favourites behind Cork, Waterford and Clare. Existing on the margins has never been Tipp’s thing.

It’s been that way for the past three seasons, as the comforting memories of Nicky English’s stint at the helm recede further into memory.

Results in the league under Ken Hogan have been far from earth-shattering, but as far as selector Colm Bonnar is concerned, they’ve divined everything they wanted from the season’s curtain-raiser.

“Setting out our goals at the start of the season, our’s was to make the top section of the league,” said the two-time All-Ireland winner.

“We wanted three good competitive games before coming up against Limerick, and that’s what we’ve got, so we’re happy with that.”

Expectations might not be high in the county for the championship, but Bonnar can see they are going in the right direction, slowly but surely.

“We’ve been going through a transitional period in Tipp the last few years and I knew that would be the case when Ken asked me to come on board. A lot of the lads on the team have only one or two years of championship hurling at this stage.

“Lads like Declan Fanning, John Devane and Michael Webster will get better the more of those games they play. We still have a few of the Philly Mahers about, but with so many new lads coming in it takes a while for a team to gel together.”

Bonnar takes you back to his own days wearing the blue and gold, when names like English, Pat Fox, Michael Cleary, John Leahy and Declan Ryan lit up the forward line alone.

Blooding in youngsters in that environment may have been intimidating but they were walking into a well-proven structure with men who knew their roles. If you swam, well and good, if you sank, you had no one to blame but yourself.

“It’s a bit harder now. What we find is lads are trying to make an impression individually to get themselves on to the panel and it’s only once they really feel they are there that they can start playing more for the team than themselves. That’s natural.”

It was because of that, and the training itself, that the panel’s training week in the Algarve was such a must, according to Bonnar.

Portugal was the first week they began to focus more on the stickwork.

Yet, as they prepare for the longer evenings, the same questions still get asked of Tipperary. Have they the forwards to take the load off Eoin Kelly? Have they finally found a worthy centre-back?

Are they good enough?

“If you look at the first section of the league our scoring averages were fairly good, better than a lot of teams,” Bonnar explained.

“We hit a lot of wides in the second phase. That needs to improve because you won’t get the same chances in the championship, but we’re making the chances. The ratio needs improving.”

As for the centre-back question, that’s a poser that has flummoxed Tipp since Babs Keating was running around Croke Park in his bare feet.

“David Kennedy was flying it until he got injured against Clare but Corcoran stepped in and kept it going.

“There’s always been this perception that Tipperary haven’t had a true centre-back in generations, but Corcoran was the best player in the Fitzgibbon finals for two years running in WIT and he was playing centre-back.”