Cummins: Tipp have reconnected with fans

Munster SHC semi-final

From the inside looking out, Brendan Cummins was always conscious of the effect Tipperary supporters had on players.

If the teams he was part of had been guilty of getting ahead of themselves after annexing All-Ireland titles, he knew the struggle to keep a lid on the fans’ exuberance from flowing into the camp would have been part of it.

Standing now on the outside peering into “the bubble”, he notices the relationship is just as important, if not more, so than when he was playing, up until last year.

He calls the extra-time Division 1 defeat to Kilkenny exactly what it was — “another chance lost” — but it reconnected the team with their following. Fans saw their players were really trying.

To think it might never have reached that stage of evolution had Dublin’s Niall McMorrow pointed instead of dropping the ball in with the hope of a goal in March’s final round game. Based on score difference, a relegation play-off would have faced Tipperary then instead of a league quarter-final.

“Public perception is sometimes maybe more important than reality,” says Cummins. “If Dublin won that day, we were suddenly in a league relegation final. We may have come out of it, God only knows, but they wouldn’t have had the extra games to show the progress Eamon O’Shea knew that was there once he got his players back.

“There would have been a lot of negativity and these lads are going to Mass, they’re working, they’re meeting people every day who have a negative attitude towards the team.

“No matter how much players try block that out, that has an impact. Whereas now they’re meeting fellas and saying ‘you’re flying’, ‘Jesus, you’re going really well’ and that buoys confidence when they’re going training.”

Ever since their 2012 All-Ireland semi-final hammering to Kilkenny under Declan Ryan, Eamon O’Shea has been mending fences between the panel and supporters.

Cummins sees a synergy between the two parties following the league final where once there wasn’t.

“You go into a bubble when you are playing inter-county, I have found, since I was outside it. And sometimes you don’t see anything else other than what you do in the group, but the reality is the supporters and the euphoria goes with it if you can connect with the team.

“That’s why Bonnar Maher makes a huge difference to Tipperary hurling, because supporters connect with work-rate and support. The biggest cheer on All-Ireland final day isn’t necessarily a guy putting the ball over the bar — it’s the hook or block or extra effort that he didn’t have to do, I think that’s what we saw with Tipp.”

Cummins is delighted to see a more settled Tipperary defence, but knows the team’s decision-making in the latter stages of games needs to improve. There are plenty of leaders in the rearguard and he see Bonnar Maher now providing a guiding hand in attack.

Cool heads, he believes, will be required in Semple Stadium next Sunday when Limerick arrive aiming to put management woes a poor end to their 2013 season behind them.

“It has certainly put Tipp on guard,” Cummins remarks of Donal O’Grady’s exit. “Last year with 10 minutes left we were three or four points up and everyone thought Tipp will pull away and there was a different bite in this Limerick team than before. They’ll have been disappointed with what happened last year in the All-Ireland semi-final and not really playing to their potential but they will also see a chance of beating Tipp in Thurles.”