The Tipperary GAA (Club and Intercounty) Thread

Joe_ Public wrote: »

Well, if the Limerick management are all that bothered about Cork, then they might have thought about fielding their strongest possible side.

That's what I was saying

Another update from Twitter. Maher did his acl unfortunately

https://twitter.com/TipperaryGAA/status/1140923574565441536?s=19

First and foremost, I'm gutted for bonnar personally, all that hard work to get himself in such terrific condition and this is his reward, that's just cruel. He's so obviously important to our style of play that its going to be tough to replace him, but it has to be said we do have good attack options and would be great to see NOM back at some stage. If anything I think Cathal is as big, if not bigger loss, because we lack defensive cover (imo anyway) and on his current form he's the best corner back in the business. Thankfully it looks like he might just miss the one game.

I’d be inclined to agree re Barrett being a bigger loss. I’ve said it before here...our fb line is our most vulnerable one. We’ve managed to avoid being found out there so far. The lads who’ve played 4 for us so far have been free machines:

I’d also be a bit worried with our squad. There’s some nailed on starters bar injury, callanan, mc grath, bubbles, forde.....there’s 2 spots up for grabs ( o Meara and Dan) haven’t seen much from our panel to challenge that.

For all the talk of our panel being strong I think we’re weak enough. Byrnes’s pass straight to a limerick fwd that resulted in a score was head in the hands stuff

Biggest positive from the weekend was galways elimination. I’d fancy us beating anyone on our day.....though limerick in the Gaelic grounds could be a bridge too far..

Tbf I think nearly every manager in every code tends to be labeled ‘conservative ‘ at some point. Nobody wants a pasting I suppose. There’s a major opportunity for our panel to step up with The injuries

Lads, anyone here used the "Bring A Friend" option for season tickets?
Can't find any info on it on the website, does it kick in just for the All Ireland series or anything? Cheers

Joe_ Public wrote: »

I like Flynn so not thrilled to see him dropped but to be fair, there's probably not a lot between a few of those guys. Changes no harm to keep the thing ticking over. Jake will be chomping at the bit to prove himself so happy to see him in there.

It would appear from the selections to date that Sheedy prefers O'Brien in the games where a man marker is needed and Flynn gets the not against opposition that will play a sweeper. Obviously with Barrets absence Sunday both will most likley play

Tipp 77 wrote: »

Its not available for the Munster final. If a game is expected to be a sell out they withdraw it. I have used it for All Ireland semi finals a few times. The only problem is you usually end up at the end of a stand. You don't get a decent middle area seat

Thank you, much appreciated. Nearly had a Galway woman shouting for Tipp on Sunday

Copied and pasted from elsewhere i got a laugh from it.


"On Sunday morning the influx of Tipperary hurling fans into Limerick City will begin. As most have their Christening money, staying overnight is not an option. So all along border towns where the 1980's becomes 2019, the Blue & Gold army will traverse from the Game of Thrones era to modern Ireland. There is a misguided perception that some Tipperary fans drive 1970's Ford Cortinas with cassette tape players blasting out Susan McCann's 'Blanket on the ground'. The truth is most of them do. For Limerick and Tipperary people, hurling is a way of life but make no mistake, this is a David & Goliath clash. Tipperary with 27 All-Ireland's, 42 Munster titles, 19 National Hurling Leagues face minnows Limerick with 8 All Ireland's, 19 Munster titles and 12 National Hurling Leagues. In true James Bond style, they gave us the evil Babs Keating and we gave hurling Richie Bennis. They have tin foil sandwiches and we have Donkey Ford's. They are coming to conquer, make no mistake about that.

Nightmare Stuff
The worst championship experience ever at the hands of Tipperary was 1991. As they dished out a beating to us in Thurles, John Leahy got a ball near where the sideline at the old stand meets the town end line. With Tipperary over ten points up, he curled the most beautiful shot over the bar. The place went nuts. Straw hats, tin foil, brake fluid and small babies were thrown into the air as the Premier marched relentlessly towards the Liam MacCarthy Cup. Along the way Limerick have taken punishment at their hands. A young spritely Ciaran Carey was inspirational at wing forward in the 1989 Munster semi in Cork. A young and fresh Limerick went in at half time 1-7 apiece. Rumour has it that Babs told a story about being overcharged for a 'knobba black puddin' in Limerick City one day and the Tipp lads tore Limerick to shreds in the second half. The final score was 4-18 to 2-11. The era between 1984-1993 was hard to watch.

Famine
What most younger hurling fans don't realise though is the mighty sandwich eaters went ten years without a championship victory. Limerick beat Tipperary in the 1973 Munster Final and it wasn't until 1983 when they beat Clare in Limerick, that Babs' babies won another game. As a young lad, I was at that game and witnessed the outpouring of emotion when Tipperary beat Clare 2-11 to 1-11. One woman confessed to keeping her son back from first holy communion until Tipp finally won a game. Little Jack, now 17 and an electrician, could take his place with the schoolkids the following week. Tipperary as a county flourished after that win. Local bread manufacturers reported a 5000% rise in sliced pan sales. Shares in cling film sky rocketed and blue and gold rosettes were handed out at mass. Great times to be a Tipperary fan.

The nineties
Limerick had a great team in the 1990's but ended the decade with no all-Ireland's. Tipperary had a relatively poor decade but ended with one. The Green & White triumphed in the 1992 National Hurling League Final as well as the 1995 & 1996 Championship meetings. But by 1997 Tipp were back to winning ways and usually when they win, it is by a big score, when we win it is a close run thing. As one Tipp lad said to me 'arrr floor is yuuur seeelin'. When I pointed out to Mick Pat that he lived in a bungalow he looked perplexed.

The 00's
Nicky English set about expelling all arrogance from the Tipperary mindset. As Manager in 99 he had gone close to beating Clare and in 2000 Tipp fell just short in the quarter final to Galway. 2001 was Tipp's perfect year winning 18 and drawing 1 of the games they played. Tipp played with an honesty, as though every player had gone to confession and told of the sins they'd committed. 'Faddder I kished a Limerick girl one night and never phoned her again hee hee'. Tipp beat Limerick in a classic Munster Final in July. Both teams had chances to win it but Declan Ryan's strength proved to be the difference between the teams. After beating Wexford in the semi final they got past Galway in the final. Again the flood of joy was something to behold with Tipperary town rocking to the tunes of Bon Jovi. When local youngsters started chanting 'Def Leppard' council offiicials phoned Dublin Zoo for advice, thinking there was an alert of some sort. As good a hurling team as Tipperary were, they couldn't win the famous trophy back again that decade. The trilogy of games between Limerick & Tipp in 2007 captured the imagination of the public. Ultimately Limerick would lose the All-Ireland final but what a year it was from Richie Bennis' men. Limerick were Limerick - fine hurlers, fine teams, but couldn't stitch it all together. More's the pity. 

The 10's
The decade started with Liam Sheedy's men producing the most wonderful all Ireland performance of all to stop Kilkenny's quest for five in a row. Just like Nicky English in 2001, Sheedy's third year at the helm proved fruitful. Lar Corbett set the tone early on with a super goal and finished with 3-3. Whisper this quietly but when he scored his third, the Limerick pub I was in actually cheered for Tipp. I didn't see any stripper in the place so I'm pretty sure it was actually a chant in admiration of our near neighbours. Still after all this brilliance though Tipperary's fans refused to eat in normal fast food joints and gathered at the boot of their Skodas to wolf sambos and warm their faces in fleshly open flashks-o-tae. Tipp didn't follow up on that win and in 2014 Limerick beat Tipperary in championship hurling in Thurles for the first time since 1973. TJ Ryan's men inspired by Shane Dowling and Donal O'Grady produced a classic late victory. Limerick ended the season with an epic 2-13 to 0-17 loss to Kilkenny in the Croke Park rain while Tipp took the cats to a replay before also succumbing to Cody's Charges.

In 2016 Tipperay were rightly asking themselves two questions. (i) Why can't this excellent band of hurlers follow up an all-Ireland win with repeated success? (ii) why do we love eating ham sandwiches? The second one there goes alongside Jimmy Hoffa, Lord Lucan and Shergar but the first was solved by Micheal Ryan. Tipperary simply swept Kilkenny aside in the All-Ireland final. I travelled to the game with my brother and there we sat, two lads, Limerick to core as we listened to what seemed like a Bookmaker's office on steroids. 'Tipp, tipp, tipp, tipp, tipp'. Jesus Christ repeat that a thousand times and you'd be fit for vodka. But credit to them, Tipperary were fantastic and seeing players like Seamus Kennedy locating his family in the crows for photos brings home just what hurling means to people in this part of the world.

No self-respecting sports article could ever be complete without mentioning 2018. The most beautiful year of hurling with the best team winning the best competition with the best hurling. I'm not biased, but Christ Limerick were brilliant. Any team who beats Tipperary, Cork, Kilkenny and Galway to win Liam MacCarthy deserve saintly status. As most Limerick people know, the injury time in the final was cruel. Imagine your first pint after lent or getting your first Pirelli calendar when you are 18. Multiply that by a million, add the Donkey Ford's challenge (fish, chip, 4 battered sausages & a canna shtuff) and that is about 10% of what it felt like to be crowned all Ireland champions after 45 years. But that is the past and now comes Sunday ……………

Leads
History suggest that if Limerick go behind to Tipperary we can pull the game back. We did it in the 1981 Championship, going thirteen points down, forcing a draw and winning the replay. We did it in the 1992 National Hurling League Final, going nine points down and winning a goalless game by one. We also famously did it in 1996 when Tipp led by ten points at half time before Frankie Carroll came off the bench and scored the equaliser allowing Limerick win the replay with Owen O'Neill kicking in goals as quick as a ham & cheese disappears in Clonoulty …………

Little Known Fact 1
In 1980 Mossy Carroll played in the All-Ireland Final for Limerick. In 1981 he had transferred to Tipperary and played in the draw and replay against Limerick. If a player transferred from one to the other today it could lead to social unrest. Swapping the beautiful Green & White for the Blue & gold is such a serious offence that you'd lose access to the Chicken Hut, Thomond Park, you'd have to give back any Rubber Bandits media that you have.

Little known fact 2
A Tipp man I know who plays with a non-Tipp Town club, was recently chatting to a girl on Tinder. He asked her where she was from and she said 'Tipperary Town'. He told me 'I didn't think they had technology down there'. If people from county Tipperary are saying that about people from Tipperary Town, it speaks volumes. I just hope for both their sakes their marches, banners and protests do bring them electricity across the county and they can continue with a blossoming relationship.

Sunday
The final game in the Munster Championship round robin series was somewhat of a shadow boxing contest. All-Ireland champions Limerick were in the home of hurling and Tipperary didn't want to lose this one. It is difficult to know if both sides went at it with the vigour they can produce. Sunday is mouthwatering. We welcome a team with a 100% championship record so far without the superb Patrick Maher. Maher's work rate for Tipperary has been a launching pad for success for many a year. It was genuinely disappointing to see such a great player get a serious injury and sincere best of luck to him in his recovery. For Limerick, a number of players should be restored which will make this a different game to the Thurles slugfest. The prospects of losing are sickening. Tipp FM will probably raise their transmitter 40 ft higher into the air to reach all parts of Limerick. Babs Keating will probably claim that he masterminded the victory and Niall Quinn will appear out of nowhere on the terrace with a Tipp shirt. 

Bucket there please .....

Verdict
Despite all the slagging between the counties, Tipp fans are just like us. They want their team to do it, we want Limerick to crush them so bad they give a bye to their quarter final opponents out of embarrassment. But this is hurling, the greatest game in the world. May the best team (Limerick) win.

Luimneach Abú"

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

Barrett starts!

Tipp Team v Limerick: Hogan Barrett Barry OBrien B Maher P Maher R Maher Breen N McGrath Forde ODwyer McCormack J McGrath Callanan Morris

Liam really wants to win every game doesn't he?! Am relieved Barrett is fit to hopefully contain Gillane again. Its the one area we're just that bit short. Very hopeful we can keep the run going, though have to admit, i wouldnt have minded another change or two.

Dunno....but i'd be amazed if they were taking a risk like this in a game that isn't do or die. I imagine there's fairly stringent fitness tests and Barrett passed them, seems like a fairly professional set up to me.

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

True but I wouldn't be surprised to see a couple of changes before throw in.

Exactly! Will Barrett start though??

Mantis Toboggan wrote: »

I'd doubt Sheedy would start Barrett if he Wasn't 100%. Hamstring is a funny 1 in that you might think you're fine until in the heat of battle.

O'Meara on the bench, if he's fully right I wouldn't be surprised to see him drafted in.

Morris lucky to get another chance..

I'd agree Barrett may not yet start, could be they are just giving him the extra day to prove himself 100% match fit. But i dont think sheedy is in the business of the dummy teams business, so i think they must estimate his chances of making it to be high if they are giving him that opportunity.

Not inclined to agree about Morris. If Niall isn't fully ready to start, then Jake is obvious choice for me. I dont believe he is one for the future, i think he's one for now and all these games are bringing him on. Not everything gone for him so far it has to be admitted, but i like his style and think he fits in perfectly with the fluid, free formation the forwards are using this summer. If its between him and Willie Connors for a starting place, i'm on Morris every time. Wouldnt even have minded to see Kehoe thrown in there, but on balance i just think Morris is the call right now.