Tipperary hurling manager Michael Ryan.
By John Harrington
Making the case that the Tipperary hurlers haven’t been hitting the same heights they did this year as last year is an easy one to make.
A cursory look at the scores they’ve conceded in the Championship this year proves the point that they’re not as defensively solid now as they were in 2016.
On route to winning last year’s All-Ireland title they conceded an average of 19 points per game, this year that average is up to 24.
The full-back line that was so solid in 2016 is now no more. Cathal Barrett has been axed for a breach of discipline, Michael Cahill has been dropped, and James Barry has looked uncomfortable since being moved from full-back where he won an All-Star last year, to corner-back.
The in-form Donagh Maher will start at right corner-back on Sunday, but after that you couldn’t be sure about the likely make-up of the Tipp full-back line after a shaky performance in the quarter-final win over Clare.
Tipperary manager Michael Ryan admits they need to improve, but as a former corner-back himself sympathises with his defenders and is confident what problems they have are very fixable.
“We haven't being performing at the top level, I think that's the accepted reality,” he says. “We have work to do.
“It's certainly not how we learned to defend or we try to defend. If anything, it's quite the opposite.
“I just think the full-back line in particular is such a horrible place to be if the ball breaks badly and you're on a really good forward or he just reads that ball millimetres better than you do, you're dead, and it's a green flag and that's simply it.
“As long as fellas are playing hurling that is the reality. If the forward gets the turn first and is on the top of his game, you're in trouble.
Clare v Tipperary - GAA Hurling All-Ireland Senior Championship Quarter-Final
“I too have conceded enough goals to know if a team is on a bad run and you're conceding goals then nobody is happy about that. No more than the Kilkenny full-back line last year, they got a lot of stick over the All-Ireland Final.
“But the problems tend to be from much further out the field. Now I wouldn't be offering that up as a defence for our back-line performance this year. It's been poor. Our fellas haven't been at the levels they need to reach.
“But it's eminently fixable. As long as you have a match ahead of you, it's eminently fixable.
“I think there's great experience in our squad that just hasn't bubbled up to the right level just yet. We're encouraging that all the time, that these boys will take responsibility and find that little bit of form that's been missing.
“And it's not much they need to do in my opinion. They just need to fight it out and stick it out. it doesn't need to be pretty, we'll take ugly.
“And, as far as I'm concerned, surely we could do ugly.”
There was nothing ugly about some of their attacking play in their last two wins over Clare and Dublin.
They might be a bit shaky at the back, but the form of forwards like Seamus Callanan, John McGrath, Noel McGrath, and John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer means they’re capable of beating any team, even an in-form Galway.
“I’m looking at these guys and I’m watching their body language and as far as I’m concerned I’m watching a team that’s just growing in confidence,” says Ryan.
“We needed to grow in confidence because we are in an All-Ireland semi-final and the standard is going to be higher again. We are coming up against the form team, or certainly one of the two form teams of 2017.
“So, it’s a fantastic challenge, but the pressure is on us to get to a level to play. We don’t need to think or consider results or anything like that; what we need to consider is play by play and performance levels.
“Are they at the levels and is the support play at the level that allows us to express ourselves and play our game and close down opportunities and take opportunities.
“It’s everything, it’s everything in the pot at this moment in time but we’ve got to keep working away.”
Michael Ryan
Another factor in Tipperary’s favour is that they know only too well the level they need to get to in order to beat this Galway side.
The defeat they suffered to the Tribesmen in the League Final was a comprehensive one, and Ryan admits it was a wake-up call for both him and his players.
“I did use a term to one of the lads that Apollo has re-entered the earth’s atmosphere, we’re not floating anymore.
“It was a complete wake-up call, it just shows you if you are off in hurling you’ll be chinned, and we were certainly chinned. I would absolutely identify the Galway game as we had a bigger say in our lack of performance that day.
“Look, I think we'd certainly hope that the League Final was an aberration. But if the Championship goes to form as it has over the last couple of years there'll be nothing in this game. That is what I expect, a really, really good battle.”
