Ryan ready for re-run of good old days

AH, the good old days of Tipperary/Clare, those torrid, tumultuous days of the late 90s/early 00s when two proud counties collided.

Thunder-and-lightning days in Páirc Uí Chaoimh, even in Croke Park; two teams going at each other full tilt, and men who would soon become legends clashed and crashed.

One of those giants was Tipperary’s Declan Ryan, a central forward who could and did go toe-to-toe with Seanie McMahon and Brian Lohan, and lived to tell the tale.

Back then, he recalls a real edge, but real respect also, mutual respect. “Any of the Tipp guys that played against Clare then would have real regard for those Clare players as hurlers and as men — fine men to meet off the pitch.

“I think a lot of the rivalry was hyped up a bit more than was actually there between the players. There were a lot of good battles but I wouldn’t be making much of an issue of it. I’ve met Anthony Daly and Seanie McMahon and these guys several times since and they’re all gentlemen.”

This Sunday, Declan will be on the sideline, team manager as Tipperary and Clare face off yet again. Different times, however, different times where back then they played only to full houses, houses that rocked and rolled with the fortunes on the field (perhaps even influenced events on the field), Thurles this Sunday probably won’t be even half full, and this for a Munster semi-final, that once-fierce rivalry gone tame, very tame.

“Clare had a fantastic team at the time,” Declan recalls. “In the mid-90s they were probably the kingpins of hurling in the country. We had a team that was trying to challenge them and maybe it’s the reverse at the moment, Clare will be coming to challenge Tipperary as All-Ireland champions.

“There’s role reversal, but there’s still an edge between Tipp and Clare, no doubt about that. From a player’s point of view, it was a healthy rivalry and it brought the best out of both teams.

“It’s probably a slightly different rivalry now — it’s a sporting rivalry and it’s probably not as all-out intense, but I’m sure Clare will ratchet it up for the game on Sunday.”

For all that, reckons Declan, a powerful and physical opponent for any defender in his own playing days, the game is no less manly now that it was then.

“When we came in as a new management team to the Tipp set-up, what struck us in the training was just how physically strong these guys are and how hard they go at it. Some of the rule changes have taken some of that out it, but it’s a more athletic game now.

“The lads that are playing it prepare very, very well and are superb athletes. Physicality is still a huge part of the game. It’s a high-pressure game now, there’s a lot of intensity.

“That’s the way the game is played and Kilkenny have set the standard in that for the last seven or eight years and the rest of us have tried to match up to that.

“The scores we saw in the Tipperary-Cork game were super and I think the standard of hurling is way ahead of what it was 15 years ago.”

Coming from someone as close to the action today as he was then, that is indeed saying something. Whatever about the physicality, however, there can be no gainsaying that this particular rivalry has really lost its lustre in the last few years. Unlike against Cork — perennial rivals, reinforced with every passing year, every passing decade — whom they beat in the first round, preparing his team for this game represents a very different challenge for Declan.

“We had months to prepare for the Cork game, but we only have weeks to prepare for Clare. Obviously it’s another huge challenge for Tipp to play well, but we know that’s what we need to beat Clare.

“We know they’re going to present a huge physical challenge and they have men in the forward line capable of scoring goals.

“We’ll treat Clare with the very same regard and the very same respect that we treated Cork in the first game and any other opposition this year.”