Gaynor: The gun is to Tipp’s head now

Tipperary legend Len Gaynor has warned the beaten Munster finalists that “the gun is to their head now” and it’s time to deliver against Wexford.

Crucially, the former Tipperary manager and player is confident they’ll come good when the need is greatest with an All-Ireland final place on the line.

Gaynor, who managed Tipp to the 1997 All-Ireland decider, admitted he’s concerned about their lost momentum following an unconvincing win over Laois and a dozen-point Munster final loss to Limerick.

Prior to that they’d blitzed the Munster group with four wins from four, prompting some to install them as All-Ireland favourites.

“They’ve lost a bit of momentum in the last two games, Tipp have to recover, the gun is to their head now,” said Gaynor, who also managed Clare.

“This is it now, it’s do or die and I expect them to really come out of the blocks flying it on Sunday. There’s nothing else for it and I think they realise that themselves.”

Gaynor said his optimism partly stems from how Tipperary turned it on once the Championship began following a relatively poor Allianz league campaign that ended with a quarter-final loss to Dublin.

“They definitely wobbled throughout the league but when the Championship started they played great hurling and got to the level they wanted to,” said the Kilruane MacDonaghs man. “So I think they will raise it again and realise that it’s another time to deliver. There’s no second chances anymore so I’d imagine they’re going to pull out all the stops and give us a great performance. Wexford have a great record against Tipp, going back to 2007, even going back to my own time, but I think if Tipp perform to the level they’re aiming for they’ll have enough to get over them.”

Gaynor reckons fatigue may have been a factor in Tipp’s mid-summer slump.

“It’s hard to know but definitely in the Munster final Limerick overpowered us, they were really good and they overwhelmed Tipp, physically and mentally, in every way,” he said. “Tipp just didn’t seem to be right that day, they looked to be tired, sluggish. Maybe they were tweaking something in training with these games now in mind, I don’t know. Against Laois, it was a different story. They were hot favourites to win that game and maybe that was in the back of fellas’ minds. You probably never thought they were going to lose but it wasn’t overly convincing. They won and that’s all they wanted I suppose but Wexford are going to come with a huge effort, massive intensity.”

Michael ‘Babs’ Keating was in charge of Tipp when the counties last met in the Championship at Croke Park, Wexford springing a surprise two-point win in the 2007 quarter-finals.

Most recently, the sides met in the league and hosts Wexford won by a point though Gaynor reckons that February result is virtually meaningless now.

“I don’t think that will have any bearing on Sunday whatsoever,” he said. “Davy being Davy, he might bring it up in conversation and use it to highlight that: ‘We’ve beat them once this year, we can do it again’. But I don’t think it’s going to have any real significance. This is something totally different really and a one-off, this is the time to perform.” Gaynor anticipates Wexford to draw Tipperary into a midfield battle and to make that sector a war-zone for 70-plus minutes.

“They’ll try to crowd out centre-field and all that sort of stuff, to block up the Tipperary attack, I’m definitely expecting a robust game,” he said.

“There’ll be no quarter given. It’s a game that people are looking forward to, anyone I’ve met seems very excited about it. We’ve had a good lot of semi-finals against Galway in the last few years and haven’t played Wexford in a long time in a situation like this. Wexford will bring great colour and they have the Davy factor.”

Another former Tipp boss, Michael Ryan, claimed earlier this week that whoever wins on Sunday will still go into the final as the underdog, given that Limerick and Kilkenny are in the other semi-final.

“Definitely Limerick are in the driving seat,” said Gaynor. “Unless they have a major blow out you’d expect them to win and to be the favourites in the final.”