Tipperary wanted the dirty ball more, says Conor Sweeney

Conor Sweeney, right, and Bill Maher of Tipperary celebrate at Páirc Uí Chaoimh. Photo by Eóin Noonan/Sportsfile

Tipperary’s record post-lockdown is matched only by Dublin. Five games in five weeks delivering five wins.

Their run of victories is even more impressive when set against the unpleasant backdrop that shows Tipperary managed just three wins across the 2018 championship, 2019 League, 2019 championship, and the first five rounds of this year’s league pre-lockdown.

In essence, they have won more games in the past 35 days than they did in the preceding two and a half years.

Top-scorer across their five games has been Conor Sweeney, the Premier captain contributing 2-26. He again led by example yesterday, kicking three from play, two marks and two frees.

“Five wins in a row hasn’t happened in a long time,” said a delighted Sweeney.

“It’s a testament to the way we’ve conducted ourselves pre, during, and post lockdown. I think we’ve all stayed on top of things.

“We enjoyed the break while we got it. It gave us a break mentally and kept us fresh, and then when we came back training you’re coming back in great shape to attack it.

“We had four weeks training before our first match and then it’s been game, game, game, game. We got two wins in the league, didn’t play overly well, but got the wins and that gave us a bit of confidence and momentum. We’ve just driven it on from there.”

On their latest victory, Sweeney said the players had put pressure on themselves to deliver senior silverware. There was a sense among them that it had to be now.

“There was pressure internally from the players. We wanted to deliver at senior level. We wanted to put in a performance. And we wanted to prove we could compete here, and we did that today which is great.

It’s something we’ve waited a long time for. We came here today with great belief and great confidence. To be honest, I don’t think we ever looked like losing it. We wanted it more. We wanted the dirty ball more. And we posed more threat upfront. It’s just fantastic to get over the line.”

Echoing the sentiments of managers such as Limerick’s John Kiely, Sweeney felt the Tipperary players who did not make the matchday panel should have been present in Páirc Uí Chaoimh.

The reality is that those players log the very same training hours as the 26 who drove to Cork yesterday, but instead of being part of the celebrations on Leeside and soaking in the atmosphere of a first Tipperary Munster football title since 1935, they were forced to watch on from their respective sitting rooms.

“I spoke about the 12 players that are at home. They should be here. That’s the bottom line. But they’re not. They’re training every Wednesday and Friday as well. They’re doing all the gym work as well. They just didn’t happen to make the 26 today, which is a really tough thing for the management to do. But that’s the way it is. Every county panel is the same, unfortunately.”

The 30-year-old wasn’t wrong when remarking that their All-Ireland semi-final opponents Mayo were “probably happy” with yesterday’s Munster final result. It was the Connacht side who had five to spare when the counties met in the 2016 All-Ireland semi-final.

“We’re under no illusions, they’re a class team. I think they’re a little bit rejuvenated this year. They’re playing some great football the last couple of games.

“Look, we’ll be the underdogs and that’s fine too. If we’re going to beat them, we’ll have to play as well as we did today and probably a bit better. They’re probably happy with the draw and the result. That’s for another day. We’ll just enjoy today.”