U21 Mark Kehoe: It’s up to us to restore Tipp pride

By Brendan O'Brien

Mark Kehoe knows the onus is on him and his Tipperary U21 teammates to lift the mood of the county after a depressing summer.

Eliminated from the senior championship after the Munster round-robin series, the county board is on the lookout for a new senior management team after Michael Ryan & Co opted to step down.

With the minors done for the year after their All-Ireland semi-final loss to Kilkenny late last month, it has fallen on Liam Cahill’s U21 group to generate some belated cheer and momentum to take into 2019.

“Yeah, definitely, and after the Munster final there hasn’t been much of a buzz about us, but we want to get that,” said the Kilsheelan-Kilcash clubman. “We’re the only ones flying the flag now for Tipperary, with the minors gone.

We really want to get that buzz back in Tipperary and show them what we’re about and we really want to get the support behind us. The only way we can do that is by overcoming Galway and showing a bit of fight. We really want to put that right for Tipperary hurling.

The problem, as Kehoe intimated, is the memory of a bitterly disappointing provincial final defeat to Cork. That 13-point reversal undid all the good done in overcoming reigning Munster and All- Ireland champions Limerick.

Kehoe looks back at that last offering now and suspects that Tipp’s flat performance on the day wasn’t just the result of errors on the pitch, but of others committed long before they took to the field as well.

“We didn’t really settle in,” he recalled ahead of tonight’s meeting with Galway. “Maybe we should have went down to see Páirc Uí Chaoimh and we didn’t. Our bus did arrive early... but at the same time that didn’t lose us the game. We lost it on the pitch and we didn’t show the intensity that was needed. Cork were mauling us all over the place and we just let them hurl without putting a hand on them and it all needs to change after that.”

He doesn’t rule out the suggestion that the defeat of Limerick, with their sprinkling of senior stars, might have sown the odd seed of complacency, but there is a determination to atone for the disappointment, regardless of the reasons behind it.

Over a month has passed now since the humiliation at the hands of the Rebels, but Kehoe is adamant that Tipp can mix it with any of their U21 peers, including a Cork side fielding up to 10 seniors and one that accounted for Wexford at their ease in the first semi-final last Saturday.

He knows a bit about what it takes for young players, such as Shane Kingston and Darragh Fitzgibbon, to shine as they have at the top tier. Kehoe spent time with the Tipp seniors this year before being dropped from the panel.

There was no explanation, but then, one wasn’t really necessary.

Not really, no. I knew I wasn’t really putting my best foot forward and he didn’t need to tell me. I knew that myself. Maybe I knew that was coming.

"I just wasn’t putting in the same effort that we all are now. We could have helped the Tipperary seniors have better preparation and, if we ever get a shot again, we’ll show a lot more drive.”

Kehoe scored 1-4 against Galway two years ago when Tipp recorded a ridiculous total of 7-12 in an All-Ireland semi-final, but the Tribesmen will be well steeled for this occasion after securing a Leinster title in their first ever attempt at the grade.

Five of this Galway U21 setup are senior panellists, while Tipp had six on Ryan’s squad heading into the championship. Few have made much of a real impact in the blue riband competition. Unlike some of their counterparts with Limerick and Cork.

“You’d feel a bit jealous, looking at them, and you’d wonder how they do it,” said Kehoe. “You see the likes of the Limerick lads and they’re so driven, they just seem like they’re flying off the ground.

“Once we see what they’re capable of, we can recognise in our head that we’re capable of it and can have a crack at it.”