Tipp the team to beat, warns Offaly coach

OFFALY coach Mike McNamara believes that on the evidence of yesterday’s display Tipp are the favourites for the All-Ireland.

"I haven't seen the standard of play like that from any team in a long time."

Tipperary impressed him in the way they appeared to have 'ironed out all their problems,' highlighting the form of Thomas Dunne at centre-back. "He was magical. One would have thought he wouldn't be able to do that, particularly against Gary Hanniffy, who is so good with aerial ball."

Twice in consecutive years McNamara has been on the losing side in Guinness All-Ireland hurling quarter-finals and with different counties.

Last year, as Galway manager it was against his native Clare and yesterday strong rivals Tipperary repeated the medicine.

McNamara also said he could see no reason why Brian Whelahan would give up, saying he has "an incredible love" for hurling.

"That love doesn't go away. I would be very surprised if he doesn't star again," he added.

In so many words, the Scarriff publican acknowledged that his young team wasn't up to the standard on the day, that they were limited by a weakness in attack and undermined by the concession of a second goal immediately after half-time. That, he felt, was a body-blow from which they never really recovered.

McNamara regarded the game as something of an eye-opener for his team. "We knew the standard that has to be attained and we thought we had got a good bit of the way there. We now discover that it's even higher again. The level that Tipperary played that's the standard needed if you are hoping to make progress," he commented.

From an Offaly perspective, he felt that too many of their players failed to perform up to expectations. Specifically, some of the younger players "seemed to be a little over-awed" by the occasion.'

"Whether that augurs well for the future I am not too sure. We'll have to address the problem. That's arguably the pool of players we have. We know how high the bar is and it's up us to see where we can improve.

"On the other end of the coin we have a spine of a team which is very good, a defence which is arguably very, very good. Problems surfaced from there up, which we need to address. Hopefully there are other players in the county who will come in and reach this magical standard -which is so incredibly high and which seems to leave us all in the wake."