Tipp's Bryan O'Mara: 'Some of the stuff we were playing, I wouldn't have paid my €40 to go in the gate'

Next up for All-Ireland champions Tipperary is a trip to face Cork at Páirc Uí Chaoimh

Tipperary's Bryan O'Mara: 'It's never easy to go down to Páirc Uí Chaoimh, we've got some fair hidings down there.' Pic: Ben McShane/Sportsfile

Two rounds in, and Tipperary already look as though nothing’s been lost in the time passed since July.

Sunday’s dismantling of Offaly was the latest proof that the All-Ireland champions have brought their standards straight back into the league.

Control was the defining factor in Tullamore, and nowhere was that more evident than in the full-back line, where Bryan O’Mara set the tone. The pillar of last summer’s triumph – the sweeper who haunted Cork in that second half – was immovable at full-back against Offaly.

His opposite, Ciarán Cleary, managed just a single shot over the 70 minutes. And even that drifted harmlessly wide.

Expectations have risen for Tipperary now. The noise has returned, the standards have shifted. They’ve got the added responsibility of trying to defend an All-Ireland title for the first time since 1965.

But for all that external pressure, the mood inside the camp is a far cry from where it sat not two seasons ago. There is a clarity now. About what they are, and what they owe the people who follow them.

And it makes for a much better dressing room atmosphere.

“It is I guess,” O’Mara began after the victory over Offaly. “Look, Tipp people mightn’t have followed us much in 2024 but we weren't giving them much to follow.

“Some of the stuff we were playing, I wouldn't have paid my €40 to go in the gate.

“We just have to make sure that they're getting value for following us. As long as we're putting in a hard effort every day, even if we don't get the result,” he explained. “You can, not get the result, in the right way. If that happens, I think Tipp people are happy as long as we put good effort in and they're happy.” 

The result was a convincing one by the end, Offaly were blitzed early after the restart and afforded no room to fashion a response in Tullamore. It required the full commitment from Tipperary, particularly given the aerial threat they were battling to suppress all game.

“We knew that they were going to come up and press hard on us and not let us work it out, especially against the wind in the first half,” O’Mara remarked. “I think they've done really well, especially being down a man for the last 10 minutes.

“They put massive amounts of pressure and they garnered good momentum there from a few good scorers out on the field as well.” Wearing the no. 3 jersey and stationed against a sizeable opponent in Cleary, it was a different examination for O’Mara, one which he thrived in.

“It's pick your poison,” he remarked. “There's no easy player or position on the field at all. It's definitely a different proposition for me.

“Being in full back, just ball raining in, it was a different thing to try and deal with. On another day, a lot of them would stick and a lot of the breaks would go to the likes of [Adam] Screeney and Charlie Mitchell and these lads.

“You're not used to dealing with it [long ball in to the target man]. You're probably used to a two-man inside full-forward line and darting out to different positions.

“All the teams seem to be doing that for a few years, but the next team to perfect that long ball in will probably get a lot of joy off it, like Cork did last year for long stretches,” O’Mara explained. “You need that big man inside and a target man and it works really well for some teams. It just causes absolute carnage when it goes in.” 

That reference to Cork is timely. Next up for O’Mara and the Premier is a rematch of last year’s All-Ireland final, this time at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday evening.

“It's never easy to go down to Páirc Uí Chaoimh, we've got some fair hidings down there.

“We're looking forward to the challenge of it again on a Saturday evening in Cork. It's one of those games you want to be playing in. They're motoring well, they always are. Serious side, so we just have to be really up for it.”