Cool heads ensure Tipp end up with traditional result

AJ LEIBLING was right, all those years ago: there is still a kick in style and tradition carries a nasty wallop.

With tradition we do not refer to Tipperary’s fabled past, but to last year’s All-Ireland victory, which clearly put plenty of yeast in the players’ self-belief. Six points down to Clare after seven minutes yesterday, they remained cool and unruffled, reeling in their opponents and ending the game three goals clear.

Clare boss Ger O’Loughlin was precise in his compliments, saying a panic button was not pressed by Tipp, and he was right.

His opposite number was happy with the way his charges had responded to the early questions.

“I was delighted the way we got the couple of goals to keep us in the game and we responded well to the challenge,” said Declan Ryan.

“We’re delighted to be in a Munster final. Our ability to get goals stood to us again. It would have been very bleak for us at half time only for the goals we got in the first half. I thought they showed a lot of composure there even though we went down early on.”

Still, how did Clare assemble a six-point lead? It’s a lazy cliché to say Clare played Tipp at their own game, but on one hand, a) we’re in the lazy cliché business, and on the other b) that’s exactly what happened early on.

There has been much chin-stroking and furrow-wrinkling among the hurling intelligentsia about combating Tipp’s patented rotation and exploitation up front — the players rotate and the space is exploited, lest there be any misunderstanding — and several antidotes have been suggested. None were stamped with the simplicity of O’Loughlin’s solution, however: he simply had his forwards do the same.

Conor McGrath’s first-minute goal, when he scorched up the middle of the Tipp defence, was a sign of things to come. When you’re playing a team which fields a full-forward who’s six foot seven you’d expect an aerial attack, but Tipp were confounded early on by the space between their full- and half-back lines and the angled running of Diarmuid McMahon and Cathal McInerney into the open areas. Clare were worth their 1-5 to 0-2 lead on 14 minutes.

However, Tipp were also worth their 3-5 to 1-9 lead 14 minutes later. Their first goal came courtesy of Eoin Kelly, who was beaten five times in a row by his marker before getting a sight of goal: Kelly duly stitched a loose ball into the net from an angle.

The next goal, from Patrick Maher, came courtesy of Clare playing the highest defensive line since late-80s Arsenal: once Maher stepped through he was one-on-one, and he didn’t miss. Neither did Lar Corbett two minutes later, when a couple of Clare defenders attacking the ball united their followers in a single shout: “There’s two of ye.”

Corbett strolled between them and hurtled through to goal from 20 metres.

In the second half Tipperary rubber-stamped their superiority. Pádraic Maher dominated the half-back line, Shane McGrath dominated midfield and when Clare edged closer the blue and gold tattooed six consecutive points to cruise out of sight. Seamus Callanan finished a fine display with their fourth goal to endorse the bookies’ estimations of an eight-point spread.

Still, Clare can take encouragement, even though O’Loughlin was being realistic afterwards.

“It’s hard to know if it was a once-off,” he said.

“Nobody gave us a chance so we probably came into it with very little pressure, so from that point of view it’s one that we’ll only know in a couple of weeks, whether we’ve taken a step.”

They will play Galway in Galway in the qualifiers and O’Loughlin is entitled to expect “there’d only be a puck of a ball in it” if they play as they did yesterday. Clare are on the rise.

For Tipperary, Waterford will present a different challenge, as Declan Ryan noted yesterday — a more defensive challenge. Tipp now have seven goals in two outings and Waterford, who have been playing a more withdrawn game than in the glory days of the last decade, will be keen to see the green flag left unused next month.

Ryan will have also noted four consecutive wides in the third quarter from his side, wides which could spread jitters in a tight, goal-less Munster final, and he wasn’t slow to withdraw two defenders at half-time yesterday also. More issues to consider.

All things considered, expect plenty of style and a good deal of tradition on July 10.