John O’Dwyer says 2015 campaign was a let down

He ended the season with his first piece of significant silverware as a Tipperary hurler but John O’Dwyer has still labelled the 2015 campaign as a considerable let down.

The man who famously came within inches of winning the All-Ireland for Tipp in 2014 had planned to at least return to this year’s decider, though the Premier came up just short in a thrilling semi-final with Galway.

It was a major anti-climax as that game also ended manager Eamon O’Shea’s reign, taking much of the wind out of the county’s sails following their first provincial title since 2012.

“Ah it was disappointing generally, we won the Munster title so we were obviously happy with that but we were disappointed then with the way we played against Galway,” said O’Dwyer.

“We feel we kind of let ourselves down.

“Only one or two lads kind of played well on the day. But it’s all over and done with now. It’s onto 2016 and that year gone has just got to be forgotten about.” The temptation for Tipp now could be to make major change having, in All-Ireland terms at least, lost ground compared to 2014 and the retirement of several iconic players, allied to the introduction of several rookie players, hints that change is indeed on the way under new boss Michael Ryan.

O’Dwyer predicted that Ryan ‘is probably not going to change that much’ though acknowledged that there will be an inevitable change in personnel following the retirements of key quartet Lar Corbett, Shane McGrath, Conor O’Mahoney and James Woodlock.

The 24-year old Cork IT final year student said he wasn’t overly surprised by those retirements even though a number of the players appeared to have more to offer.

“Some of them anyway, I kind of had a fair idea about one or two (opting to leave),” he said. “They’re going to be savage losses but we’ve plenty of young lads coming through that are going to step up to the plate.

“We’ll see how it goes, those lads are going to have to step up now with a couple of those players gone but that’s how it goes, that’s the evolution.” ’Bubbles’ reckons that will be the end of the retirement exodus. “I think so,” he said.

“I don’t really know for sure but it should be, the rest of the squad is fairly young. A lot of players are only really breaking through so, no, I can’t see any more retirements out of the squad.”

County football sensation Steven O’Brien will focus solely on hurling in 2016, a considerable coup, according to O’Dwyer, who said the likelihood of having Noel McGrath available from the beginning of the year after missing much of 2015 following a bout of testicular cancer ‘will feel like getting a new player’.

Meanwhile, Dublin footballer Ciaran Kilkenny has revealed he missed All-Ireland champions Dublin’s team holiday to Thailand partly because he’s a manager, at just 22.

The All Star centre-forward is captain of St Pat’s college in Drumcondra and said part of the commitment meant agreeing to help with the management of the side.

He revealed how unglamorous the task can be at times, outlining how their team bus was unable to access a venue in Kildare recently because of low bridges locally.

“We were told it was a 10-minute walk to the ground but it was about 25 minutes and I had a bag of balls on my back with about 13 balls in it, falling all over the place,” said Kilkenny.

“If the bus driver would just have gone under the bridge!

“They’re the sort of experiences you get. It was a new one for me anyway.”

Kilkenny and O’Dwyer were speaking at the launch of the 2016 Sigerson and Fitzgibbon Cup competitions.

Sigerson Cup holders DCU were handed a kind Round 1 draw, at home to Athlone IT, with the winners meeting IT Sligo or IT Carlow in the quarter-finals. Fitzgibbon Cup holders UL are in a testing Group C alongside DIT, NUIG and Mary I.