We got some hard facts from this Munster Final in which Tipperary basically blew Waterford away. As a statement of intent, this was a serious one delivered by a Tipperary team who, from the word go, set out to be direct and showed little or no regard for any system Waterford were going to play.
What we got was hard, physical direct hurling from Tipperary. The difference from Tipperary in 2015 and Tipperary in 2016 is marked: where last year it looked as if they over-thought Waterford and their system, here they no showed absolutely no respect. Tipperary concentrated on themselves, on being direct and being physical, and from an early stage it looked like they were hungry for goals.
I think the argument for playing a sweeper in hurling took a battering over the weekend, with only Clare’s victory really left to fly that particular flawed flag.
Waterford have a tough task if they’re to regroup for the quarter-finals but it seems to me there are far too many pieces to be picked up to have any hope of success in 2016. But this Munster final outcome was all about Tipperary and, in truth, it looks as if they are now the only real contenders to Kilkenny in the quest for the All-Ireland.
Tipperary carried a greater physicality than I’ve seen from them in the last number of years. There’s real power right up through the spine of the team: James Barry, Séamus Kennedy, a real addition, Michael Breen and Brendan Maher in the middle, Bonnar Maher very much back to top form and Dan McCormack, who is a ball-winning stand-up-and-hit-’em kind of player who uses the ball well, and how then there’s Paudie Maher.
And John McGrath certainly showed his class. It didn’t come as any great surprise to me. He’s been the best forward in the Fitzgibbon Cup for the last couple of years. This guy has the power to win his own ball, invariably does the right thing with it and he has goal on his mind and showed that time and time again.
Séamus Callanan too impressed. He’s been carrying a quad injury for the last three or four weeks and hadn’t done a lot of training but he was faultless on frees and always carried a significant threat.
In fairness to Tipperary, every one of their players and substitutes impacted and they’re a team that’s ticking over very nicely and in rude good health.
There’s an old adage that goals win matches and any team with serious aspirations on winning the All-Ireland must have a goal-scoring threat, which Shane O’Donnell’s three goals emphasised with Clare’s win in 2013.
Waterford didn’t carry that threat and ultimately their system – which I’d thought they’d adapted somewhat – patently failed. Even when four goals down, Waterford persisted with a two-man forward line inside the Tipp 45-metre line. When you see Austin Gleeson and Maurice Shanahan called ashore midway through the second-half you knew that Waterford had run out of ideas.
The system broke down for Waterford. These sweeper systems are set up to limit the size of defeat but to be successful teams must have greater ambition. You have to be able to kick-on and score. To compound this, in this case, even if your sweeper isn’t even going to limit the scoring rate at the other side, then limiting yourself to 13 points is a futile exercise and a wasted journey for your supporters.
Waterford have to regroup in the next two weeks but it’s unlikely the system is going to change very much and a team is not going to win Munster finals or All-Irelands unless it carries the goal-scoring threat that as John Mullane and Dan the Man in their days carried. This was a toothless Waterford.
From an early stage, Tipperary were on top. It took them a little too long to realise Waterford’s didn’t carry any threat other than frees from a misfiring Pauric Mahony, but once they did Tipperary just blew them away. Waterford were running into cul-de-sacs.
There was one time Kevin Moran, one of their strongest players, on another Waterford solo run, was buried and nearly sent into the stands by a strong, fair challenge from Breen. Tipp had figured out they could let them run and line them up and just deal with them.
The manner of this win confirmed Tipperary’s improvement on 2015 but they still need to realise this is the Munster championship and the real hurling starts now. The pain of last year’s All-Ireland semi-final defeat to Galway will be a help in that refocus. After this, they look to be the one genuine threat to Kilkenny.
I didn’t expect Wexford to beat Cork but they fully deserved their success against a poor Cork team. There are real structural and foundational questions for Cork hurling now. Clare came through against an inept Limerick and have room for plenty of improvement. But it’s hard to see them matching up to the physicality and hurling we’ve seen from Tipperary and Kilkenny over the past two weekends.
