Good man cluainduic.
my favourite pic is the crokeback mountain one
Watched that back again, Tommy hits Bourke a right crack in the shins as Bourke runs past him, and this was his retaliation. But because it was hard to see what Tommy did on first viewing, it just looks like Pa decided, out of nowhere, to jump up on his back in the style of Wolfe Tone’s ghost.
Oh suits you sir - Dont question as he would have been advised by Jackie beforehand!
According to PV Corbett usually takes a cold shower at half time and on Sunday he emerged from the shower to be bollocked by Tommy Dunne which is why he was late coming out for the start of the second half.
Lar was clearly on steroids before he went out on Sunday, or crystal meth or something, he was tearing around like a mental person and his comments and Indo “column” afterwards suggest the same.
I think the biggest disgrace about Tipp on Sunday is how they have taken a hurler as good as Bonnar Maher and turned him into a completely irrelevant and peripheral player.
Enda McEvoy has been watching Gladiator again I see.
Enda McEvoy seems like a very sound cunt. Excellent journalist too.
Do you mean Brendan Maher, Fitzy?
[quote=“myboyblue, post: 703390”]
Wonderful piece, nail firml hit on head.[/quote]
I’d say he enjoyed writing that.
Lar is getting too much shit for what is a failure of the Tipperary squad, Tipperary hurling, and the Tipperary people as a whole.
“Kilkenny are not in the habit of bringing knives to gunfights” :lol:
McEvoy is one of the best hurling writers around alright. Has he written any books?
Think he wrote one on Kierans College.
He’s written a few books I think, the most recent of which is the Godfather of Modern Hurling about Fr Tommy Maher from Kilkenny. A book I recently mistakenly left on an Etihad plane and no doubt currently being enjoyed by the groundstaff at Abu Dhabi :shakefist: .
He wrote the introduction to ollie byrnes book on flannans, blue is the colour, I find him quite ignorant and self inflated
:lol:
Daithi is a ledge
From May of 2011
Loughnane on Tipp
Considering that they describe their county as the home of hurling - isn’t it remarkable that Tipperary fans have to go back 46 years for their last two-in-a-row?
Whatever about the validity of that claim, this proclamation served as a real strength for Tipp teams because they never feared Kilkenny, an aspect which helped them derail their neighbours’ five-in-a-row bid last year.
Considering that they achieved this with a very young team, many feel that we are now on the cusp of a period of Premier dominance.
And the swashbuckling display of their Under-21s when demolishing Galway in the 2010 final adds further credibility to this theory.
But are Tipp as good as last year’s display suggests?
Remember that this epic final against Kilkenny was played on a chilly day with a constant drizzle - conditions which should not have suited Tipp’s quicksilver touch and lack of physique.
My gut instinct tells me that they aren’t as good as they looked last September.
True, I fancied them to beat Kilkenny as, for once, Brian Cody lost the run of hinself by allowing a circus to develop around his injured players ahead of that final.
No matter how much Cody denies this, I am convinced that on top of the pressure for the five-in-a-row, it just proved too much - even for such an experienced team.
So when Tipperary started the game with a whirlwind of movement, Kilkenny’s lack of mental and tactical preparation was soon exposed.
One incident early in the first half convinced me that Kilkenny were completely unprepared for the Tipp forward movement.
Lar Corbett, who was playing at full forward, raced out to the wing on the Cusack Stand side of the field then veered into the centre-forward position.
Coming along behind him and struggling to catch up like an unsteady, new-born foal was Noel Hickey, the great Kilkenny full-back.
In all his glorious years with the Cats, Hickey was rarely seen outside his own 21.
I knew straightaway then that the game was up.
Minutes later, Corbett had Hickey isolated in front of the goal and, when a long ball came in, the Tipp man caught it and banged it to the net as a disoriented Hickey lay prostrate on the ground.
It was game over. Kilkenny had failed to plan and were eventually overrun. But, as you reqind the tape of last year, it is not all sweetness and light for the Tipp men.
True, they easily overcame Waterford in the semi-final but that had as much to do with the senselessness of the Déise forwards’ play as with Tipp greatness.
Go back a little further and they were extremely lucky to beat a Galway side that had been hammered by Kilkenny in the Leinster final.
And there is no need to mention Tipp’s nightmare in Páirc Ui Chaoimh against Cork and a 10-point thrashing from their greatest rivals.
That defeat threatened to derail not just Tipp’s year, but the entire team and management. But, of course, the reaction to that defeat showed the true quality of their leading players and management, most especially Liam Sheedy.
True, he had great allies in Eamon O’Shea and Michael Ryan and on-field leaders in Brendan Cummins, Declan Fanning, the Mahers, Corbett and Eoin Kelly.
But Sheedy was the catalyst with a fanatical desire to down Cody and Kilkenny before his tenure ended - even though he will never publicly admit this.
Tipp still have most of their on-field leaders - though the loss of Fanning is a massive blow.
They have one of hurling’s greatest young coaches in Tommy Dunne and, of course, the confidence and assuredness that comes from being champions.
Added to this, they have a string of young players queuing up to get on the team and their recent display against Galway suggests that they are at a different level to nearly all other teams.
Why, then, have I such a nagging doubt about them?
I still think that they are soft. Or, at least, without Sheedy, they will be soft this year. Those who have never played at inter-county level don’t realise the effect that a boss with a teak-tough personality - like Sheedy has - can have on even the weakest player.
He can get them to play way above their normal level. Make them do things and take punishment they normally wouldn’t do.
And I’m convinced that this is the effect Sheedy had on them in their last two All-Ireland finals. Of the starting 15 in last year’s final, I could name at least six of their players who I would regard as soft and easily put off their game.
Yet all six played brilliantly last September, such is the security that they felt within the Sheedy bubble.
The bubble has now burst so how will they perform when they have to stand on their own two feet?
Declan Ryan has they difficult task of following Sheedy. But he will have to do things differently as himself and Sheedy are polar opposites in terms of personality.
All the talk among hurling people concerns Tipp locking horns with Kilkenny, probably in September. I’m certain Kilkenny will be there, but not so sure that Tipp will make it that far.
The Munster Championship draw has again proved very unkind.
Playing Cork in May brings its own demons as a bad Rebel team can beat Tipp - and vice-versa. But Waterford are the main threat.
Physically very strong, defensively secure and Davy Fitzgerald is working hard to make up for their forward deficiencies.
A defeat in Munster will most likely put Tipp up against Kilkenny in an All Ireland semi-final.
And if Kilkenny have their full team - and they’ll be hell-bent on revenge - will Tipp beat them?
Then there is the injury to the indispensable Brendan Maher in midfield, the lack of adequate defensive back-up as well as question-marks over long-serving keeper Brendan Cummins.
With a vast array of young talent at their disposal, most of these problems can be overcome.
But, in my opinion, the one obstacle that they won’t overcome - this year, anyway - is the loss of Sheedy. For that reason, I think the wait for the tow-in-a-row will go on