By John Harrington

Tipperary hurling team manager Michael Ryan didn’t try to hide his devastation after yesterday’s dramatic season-ending Munster SHC defeat to Clare.

It was a match of very fine margins, and his team came out on the wrong side of them by a razor-thin margin.

Ryan was fulsome in his praise of the way Clare turned a four-point deficit into a two-point win in the closing stages of the match, and felt the turning point was the late goal Ian Galvin scored 18 seconds after Tipperary’s Jake Morris had hit the post at the other end of the field.

“I'm gutted for us,” said Ryan. “We tried everything we could to get something out of today - we knew how high the stakes were. We had to get something out of today or our season was done and that's what happened.

“Unfortunately, it didn't happen for us and it was very, very close. It was a fantastic game of hurling, exceptionally well played by both sides.

“I couldn't be prouder of our fellas, they were absolutely outstanding and we got to a performance level that anyone would be happy with.

“But so too did Clare. They are a super team and great credit should go to them.

“They had to chase it and they really did - they stayed at it. Big matches are defined by different moments…we had a great cameo where we were in for a potential goal it didn't work out and Clare went straight up the field.

“Their ability to retain the ball and put it in our net was the catalyst for the next four or five minutes.”
Tipperary had dominated the match for long stretches before Galvin’s goal ignited Clare’s late charge, and at one stage led by eight points in the first half.

It was comfortably their best performance of the Championship, and Ryan was frustrated they couldn’t have produced that level before yesterday’s match.

“What will bother us and keep us awake at night is that level of performance which was elusive, we found it today but we didn’t get anything out of the game,” he said.

“If we had found that level of performance (in the other games), we may have taken something out of this championship. It's not our lot, our lot is that we are one of the two that won't go forward.

“Clare are a quality side and I'd say that's the best they've played too. That's a great win for them, it will do a huge amount for their confidence.

“There are loads of games where you don’t play well and results don't go your way but we played well today and it still didn't go with us. We didn't do anything wrong.

“It's too soon to say why it didn't come together for us (in this championship). The first thing I'd do is credit all the teams we played against.

“Munster is a brilliant province. All five teams are equal, capable of beating each other on a given day.

“There is no weak team in Munster. Maybe that sounds a bit rich of me saying that after being knocked out but I'd still hold that view.”

It was Tipperary’s fourth match in 21 days whereas Clare had the benefit of a weekend off to prepare for it, but Ryan didn’t think that fatigue was a primary reason for their defeat.

“I didn’t see fatigue, if anything I saw the opposite,” he said. “That was our best performance out of four. Albeit we didn’t get anything out of it.

“I know the writing was on the wall for us. We had to deliver a performance today to have a chance. I don’t think it hurt us today.

“I don’t think it’s perfect, that some teams get a break and some don’t. I know that they are going to alter that next year but that’s not the solution in my opinion.

“How do you get it right with five teams? You need another team to fix that so that everybody could get a break. However that’s above my pay grade. The disheartening thing had been the early performances. But we lost today and today we got knocked out of the championship.”

Ryan agreed a three-year extension to his tenure as Tipperary manager last September, and after the match said it was too soon to decide on his immediate future in the position.

“It’s premature lads to be honest. Any decision that we make on that, we’ll make them in the cold light of day.

“There’s never any good decisions made immediately after a match, be it a win or a loss so look, the only thing we care about is a very fine bunch of players inside there in that dressing room and the biggest thing, the overall thing is the health of Tipperary hurling.

“That’s the only thing that this whole programme is about, the state of Tipperary hurling, are we at the top table, are we up there competing?

“Look, we’ve been hit by a train, it wasn’t in the plan so I think the test is ours in terms of how we regroup and how we come back and compete with what is now a very different hurling landscape and a landscape where all the teams look to be very competitive.”