Tipperary’s Seamus Callanan wants more championship game-time

Seamus Callanan is refusing to blame a five-week break for Tipperary’s demise to Galway last month - but would like to be playing more championship matches.

For the 10th season in a row, the Munster champions failed to claim the All-Ireland title as the provincial council are already looking into cutting the gap between the Munster final and their champions’ All-Ireland semi-final.

With the All-Ireland SHC structure remaining untouched, quarter-finals for provincial winners are unlikely to be introduced but Callanan would like to have more outings.

“We only had three games this year and we had a five-week break there and you’re trying to play club games, you’re trying to do everything to cut down the time. Yeah, I wouldn’t like the break. I wouldn’t think it was the losing of the game for us. I wouldn’t blame it in that regard but players want to play games. I definitely think we should be getting more games.

“It’s very hard, really, because you don’t want to take away the values and the importance of the Munster and Leinster championships. Obviously, it’s very special to win that and this year we set out our stall to win the Munster championship and then win the All-Ireland.

“It was very special for us to win the Munster in Thurles that day and I wouldn’t like to see that changed but if we could restructure it some way where we get more competitive games it would be brilliant.”

Callanan has yet to hear from Eamon O’Shea’s outgoing selector and incoming successor Michael Ryan and while he acknowledges O’Shea will be missed, he is confident Ryan will make a positive impact.

“He’ll be a massive loss but we can’t be looking back at Eamon; we have to be moving forward and we can’t be comparing someone else to Eamon or comparing Eamon to Liam.”

Both personally and as a hurler, O’Shea make quite an impact on the 26-year-old, especially in introducing him to Kieran McGeeney with whom Callanan worked on a one-to-one basis. “I worked with Kieran a good bit, outside of the training on a personal level. Kieran is very good and you’d have massive respect for someone who’s had the career that Kieran had, the experience of the man and the knowledge of the man.

“He knows best; he’s gone through what you’re going through. He was a massive benefit to me and gave me great confidence and a great sense that I could work on my own visualisation and mentality towards what’s going on. It was very, very helpful.”

Callanan was speaking yesterday having been named, along with Lee Keegan, as a GAA GPA Opel All-Star player of the month for August. However he confirmed Tipperary, who had seven award winners last season, may not have any representation on the 2014-15 All-Stars hurling trip to Texas in December as it clashes with midfielder Shane McGrath’s wedding.

The @OpelIreland Hurler of the month for August, @TipperaryGAA's Seamus Callanan picking up his award! #GAA pic.twitter.com/pKiBrFjt4W

— sportsfile (@sportsfile) September 10, 2015

“Look, it would be great if we could somehow work the trip so that we could be going because it’s a nice little reward for us at the end of everything. I don’t know if there’s anyone looking into changing the time of the trip. It would be great if they could.”