With pressure off, four-time All-Star Michael Cleary expects Tipperary to perform

Tipperary manager Liam Cahill, right, and selector Michael Bevans during the closing moments of the Munster SHC defeat to Cork. Photo by Brendan Moran/Sportsfile

Tipperary’s two-time All-Ireland SHC winner Michael Cleary expects the team to produce their best display of the championship against Clare on Sunday.

Like Waterford last year, they head into a final round game in Thurles with nothing to play for in 2024, only pride, but possibly the future of some inter-county players and the management too. As Waterford selector Peter Queally recently admitted, beating Tipperary 12 months ago in a so-called dead rubber saved Davy Fitzgerald’s position.

Now that Tipperary are out of the championship, four-time All-Star Cleary anticipates Liam Cahill’s group will play unburdened. “I’m expecting Tipp’s best performance of the year. The pressure is off and I have no doubt he will throw in four or five new players.

“The pressure of playing inter-county hurling is an inherent part of it and being expected to win in Tipperary is huge but there is no pressure on Sunday. Lads will have the freedom to have cut at it and there are fit, good hurlers. For the sake of the championship, they have to try.” 

Going back to that final round game last year, Tipperary haven’t been the same team, Cleary feels. 

“I think the Waterford game last year was a huge blow to Tipperary hurling. They had put in good performances against Clare, Cork and Limerick but then came the Waterford game and the Galway one after Offaly and it looks like they have never recovered from those two defeats. That goes for the playing group and the management team.” 

It's not in the afterglow of Tipperary winning a second Munster minor title in three seasons on Monday evening that blinds Cleary’s judgement when he plays down talk of a crisis in the county. He didn’t hold out much hope for Tipperary beating Cork in the first place “considering the level of energy behind Cork”.

15 June 1997; Michael Cleary of Tipperary during the Munster SHC semi-final against Limerick. Photo by Ray McManus/Sportsfile

But he has been troubled by Tipperary’s graph since 2019. To lay it on all at Cahill’s front door would be wrong, he maintains. “Firstly, there was a bit of exaggeration about the Cork support last Sunday being 10 to one. There was a lot more Cork support but I say it was three to one.

"Tipp people have been voting with their feet, there’s no doubt. At no point this year did Tipperary turn in a performance that people could say, ‘We have a chance.’ It never seemed to ignite at any point this year.

“The cold, hard facts are since 2019 we have been limping along largely. I don’t buy into talk of crisis. There are plenty of hurlers in Tipp. I don’t want to go management bashing either because they give their heart and soul to it.

“I don’t know if there’s one thing wrong with Tipperary hurling. Cork were obviously a coming team with speed and by half-time it was clear Tipp were just hanging on. The Limerick defeat bothered me more, I’d be straight with you.

“In modern society, everybody knows everything instantly and it’s management-bashing, ‘oh, they’ve got to go’ instantly and an All-Ireland will be expected from the new group next year. I don’t know what the answer is but there is a lot of work gone on in Tipperary in the last 25 years and there are still buckets of hurlers in the county.

“We have reasonably good success at under-age level in that time and a handful of senior All-Irelands. We’ve had the Mahers, Noel McGrath in a golden generation. I’m sure there are leaders among the newer players, they just need to find their mojo and start winning matches.” 

In recent months, Cleary has heard of Tipperary GAA’s finances being stretched. He knows money translates to the field. 

“The one thing clear and obvious is if you don’t have a big pit of money you’re struggling to win an All-Ireland. You’re looking at AIG with Dublin and JP (McManus) with Limerick. There are very few counties making the breakthrough unless you have a big chequebook behind them.

“There is huge work going on in Tipperary and I have seen it close and personal being involved the last couple of years with the Nenagh (Éire Óg) senior hurling team. Standards are high at club level but if Tipp are back struggling for money it’s worrying.

“You do need money. We’re in an age now where sadly and unfortunately volunteering isn’t enough and if you want the best of people they come at a price. 

"Some counties might be considered lucky to get a Brian Cody, John Kiely or Jim Gavin but all the players now are highly intelligent, college graduates and if somebody is bluffing, they down tools and America and Australia have never felt closer. They can go very quickly and that goes for every county.

“There are great people involved in Tipp hurling and maybe in Cork now Pat Ryan is the right man at the right place. You have to be lucky too and that 65 in Ennis might be enough to get out of Munster and go all the way.”