Eamon O’Shea will be happy Tipperary have work to do
An intriguing aspect of the hurling championship is the manner in which teams gradually raise the stakes on each other as the summer unfolds. Counties come in at a certain level, make statements and then watch to see what their rivals are up to in the weeks that follow.
For instance Limerick’s defeat of Clare appeared to suggest that TJ Ryan’s team were putting an indifferent league behind them and building nicely for the Tipperary semi-final. Even Clare, for whom it was another disappointing setback, were felt to have better in them as well as important players coming back, which would strengthen them in the qualifiers.
A lot has happened in the meantime, including the departure of both counties altogether at the weekend. Cork, apparently becalmed in Doldrums of irretrievable form and sparse options, took the plunge just nine days ago and went defensive.
For those in Wexford Park and again in Thurles a week later it was like listening to Dylan going electric (50 years ago this month) - and so far, with respect to irredentist folkies, it’s been just as successfully transformative.
Kilkenny and Tipperary are now comfortably ensconced in August, waiting for whoever has been emboldened by All-Ireland quarter-final success. The two provincial champions have things to work on in the coming weeks before they can confirm the bookies’ rankings and meet up for the fifth September in seven years.
Kilkenny are past masters at lurking in semi-finals and keeping themselves sharp but Tipp aren’t as practised. The county’s two most recent All-Ireland finals under Eamon O’Shea were accessed through the steady rhythms of the qualifiers.
What O’Shea has specialised in is producing season’s best performances in All-Ireland finals. You can’t take on a team buzzing with confidence and energy like Waterford determined to play it low-key but there were times on Sunday when Tipp looked inattentive and easily distracted.
The Tipperary manager will be very pleased to have won Munster at the third attempt but he will be all the happier to have so much to work on over the next five weeks. SM
A long winter in store for Limerick and TJ Ryan
When it was all over on Saturday night, a Limerick supporter jumped from the crowd and scuttled over to scream in TJ Ryan’s face. It was one of those heavy-on-the-spittle tirades, a hero having his go. At an elite sporting event in any other country, the man would have been dragged away in handcuffs and spent a night in the cells for his trouble. But this is the GAA, where we do things differently.
“Ah sure, look, that’s passion,” shrugged Ryan afterwards. “I’ve been used to that at this stage. It’s frustration as well. They want to win, the Limerick supporters came here and wanted to win the same as myself in fairness to them. Look it, they’re the joys of it.”
Ryan had plenty of these days as a player with Limerick - the definitive book on hurling in the county isn’t called Unlimited Heartbreak for nothing, after all - but even he must be confounded as to how they sunk to 2015’s depths after the highs of 2013 and 2014. They had a reasonable claim on the title of third-best team in the country both years and now here they are, the first top level county to start making plans for the club championships.
The winter will be long and you wouldn’t blame Ryan if he decided to start from scratch with his team. It’s one thing for an experienced team to be knocking on the door as they were over the past two years. It’s quite another for them to make no impression at all on the summer. Experienced turns to ageing very easily. Ryan might have to clean house a little before they go again.
One way or another he'll be hearing about it down amongst his people. MC
Armagh’s Athletic Grounds painted maroon
Whatever march Armagh had planned on the football qualifiers wasn’t meant to end on July 12th. Because instead of it being orange, their Athletic Grounds were painted positively maroon yesterday afternoon, as Galway secured their first away qualifier win since 2001.
It was always likely to be close, and for Galway perhaps too close for comfort - as they went the last 21 minutes, plus three more of injury time, without a score. Without Damien Comer’s goal, deftly it not slightly accidentally finished over his head and into the net not long after half-time, it’s hard to imagine them marching on, although their fighting spirit, coupled with a somewhat cynical tactic of running down the clock (two black card offences in injury time) meant Galway just about fell over the line first.
So, while Galway went back into the hat - once against drawing Ulster opposition, Derry, only this time at home at Pearse Stadium - Armagh are effectively back where they started, a summer without any notable scalps or indeed progress. Their tame display against Donegal was partly addressed with the win over Wicklow, but there was very little so-called vintage Armagh on display this time. Both midfielders were replaced, Jamie Clarke was held to a single point, and while Clarke himself may have had half a claim for a penalty in the second half, they never once threatened the Galway goal line.
It all seemed a lifetime away from when Armagh boasted the likes of Oisin McConville, Steven McDonnell, Ronan Clarke and Diarmaid Marsden, a near constant goal threat, and maybe it is. Kieran McGeeney never promised a quick return to that era, and truth is that march back to the top table of championship football may take even longer than he anticipated.
“I don’t think you can put time limits on it,” McGeeney said afterwards, typically philosophically. “If you win a game like today, it can springboard you onto different stuff. If you lose it can set you back. We are into division two next season, playing teams like Galway and Tyrone, better teams, and that will help tighten things up a wee bit, and get us playing a higher level.”
It looks like being a slow march then, for Armagh, before they reach the heights McGeeney enjoyed with them in 2002, while for Galway the summer march of 2015 continues to gather some pace. IO'R
Tyrone hold on to bring Meath’s miserable summer to an end
Strangely tardy weekend. A confession: I was late to Omagh on Saturday afternoon. Miscalculated the Meath traffic; that dwindling hardcore who travelled north to see some form of reaction from men who wrap the precious Royal green around them.
There was at least a dying kick. Embers of the old flame.
Abandoning the car in a nearby estate, the scoreboard provided some comfort: 0-0 to 0-0. Seven minutes played. Took up a perch behind the Meath goal until Seán Cavanagh opened the scoring and the rain demanded refuge was taken in Healy Park’s modern, almost sound proof, media centre.
By half-time most agreed this was a game of football with no redeeming features. It took Meath 28 minutes to respond to Cavanagh’s second point. But then, gradually at first, the contest evolved into a free flowing, captivating spectacle. The wind and rain actually contributed as players had more time to shoot. The accuracy levels of Graham Reilly, Kevin Reilly, Mark Bradley and Tiernan McCann almost made the journey worthwhile.
Anyway, Tyrone held on thanks to a debatable penalty, expertly finished by Peter Harte, along with late scores from Bradley and Darren McCurry.
But what did it all mean? Meath’s summer: they struggled past Wicklow, spectacularly collapsed when gifting Westmeath their first ever championship victory over them before this brave demise against opposition “who know how to win.” So said manager Mick O’Dowd.
The players want to see O’Dowd, Trevor Giles and Seán Kelly given another term. At least a fourth year. That’s according to their captain Donal Keogan. Presumably he speaks for them all.
That decision is a club lottery now.
In many ways Tyrone versus Tipperary is an ideal fixture for both counties. Mickey Harte knows the qualifier path only too well. He joined us in the watch tower after (to speak to BBC): “The only thing you like about the next round is that you’re in it. All you can hope for is a home draw ...”
Arrived in Croke Park on Sunday just in time for the national anthem.
Miscalculated the Dublin traffic. Again, abandoned car, which was miraculously not clamped, to witness Westmeath hold the Dublin goal flood for 36 minutes. Got to see Diarmuid Connolly in his prime again.
Tyrone and Dublin would be an interesting duel. Joe McMahon could shadow Connolly... GC
