“From an early stage, we looked to be off it that little fraction and (we) are very very fortunate to still be in the championship.” Liam Cahill.
Its a sentiment that has echoed in every Tipperary followers mind following a lacklustre display last Sunday. From second one when Neil Montgomery won the throw in, went the wrong direction and could still set up Waterford’s opening score it was clear that Tipperary were that little fraction off.
Second to every ball, beaten in almost every position both on and off the pitch, this goes into the days to forget as a Tipperary supporter collection. After a positive league and equally heartening Munster championship, it is difficult to comprehend what went wrong.
What do the numbers say?
“Get your facts first and then you can distort them as you please.” Mark Twain.
Anyone who follows this scribe will know that the HOTD has formulised a very simple method to analyse the Puckout-Pass-Shoot nature of inter-county hurling. Scores either come from a Tipperary puckout, the opponents or a turnover forced in open play. Underneath those 3 columns on the back of the HOTD fag box is a space left for the throw in. It is for a score that comes directly from the start of either half.
Such is the frenetic nature of hurling; this row is often left blank as the first few seconds are simply all out war for the ball with a series of turnovers. On Sunday last, Neil Montgomery won both throw-ins and Waterford scored 0-2 directly from the start. This was a snapshot of the day all Tipperary followers had to endure in Waterford’s 1-24 to 0-21 win over Tipperary.
Tipperary were beaten for every ball on Sunday and outsmarted on the sideline. Liam Cahill admitted as much in his post-match interview with his decision to let Waterford have their puckout backfiring spectacularly as shown in the table above.
Waterford’s puckout formation has not been given the analysis it deserves, whether it works or not is secondary, Davy Fitzgerald is changing many of the fundamentals that every hurling team has employed since hurling began which is to keep your back line set.
Love him or loath him, Davy has never been afraid to show ingenuity. It may seem a tad ironic that the same HOTD who despises the plague of throwing, steps and illegal use of the spare hand would find this so interesting but it is all been done within the rules of the game.
Of course, it must come with a warning label with Davy when the likes of Dessie Hutchinson or Conor McGrath are playing as midfield workhorses instead of inside snipers. Who would have thought that playing Hutchinson inside the 45 would actually mean the Ballygunner man score 1-3 with young prodigy Patrick Fitzgeralf also adding 0-3 to a more orthodox looking full forward line.
Waterford puckout
The Waterford set up for their puckout has to be seen to be believed. Their goalkeeper, Shaun O’Brien allows time for the whole team to exit up to at least the 45.
In many peoples opinions, this scribe included, Tipperary played into Waterford’s hands by not pushing up on the puckout. Seamus Callanan and Patrick Maher were chasing shadows with this approach, they could arguably have been better just standing inside on the 21 and let Waterford have the overlap rather than wasting energy trying to cause a turnover that was never coming.
At the other end, they attempted to leave the 11 channel empty. Tipperary attempted to counteract this by placing Ronan Maher in this pocket as a 7th defender or plus one as the modern coaches prefer to christen it.
“We had spoken about it, we were happy to leave Ronan free at the back to make that we weren’t giving away any green flags…. But, we probably didn’t abandon it early enough which is a disappointment from us as a management team that we didn’t throw caution to the wind earlier.” Liam Cahill on Tipperary’s puckout set up.
In the first half, Waterford went short on 8 occasions, retaining all 8 of these up until midfield. They went long twice, winning both. In total they managed to get 7 shots off these uncontested restarts scoring 0-4.
This provided Waterford with an instant foothold in the game as Tipp retreated into a deep defensive structure. For a team that places so much emphasis on turnovers from open play and opponents puckout, this was an unexpected tactic and clearly backfired.
Go to any hurling game of a decent standard and the general rule of thumb is to leave the corner back have it and pressurise him after a few steps in the hope of an error. The Tipperary tactic allowed Waterford to walk out to the middle of the field unopposed and launch attack after attack.
It was not until the 61st minute that this appeared to be fully abandon this policy when Ronan Maher left the sacred D area. Waterford did actually end up scoring a point from the space left free in the 68th minute when Stephen Bennet scored a point.
From our own puckout, it was a complete calamity. Tipp rightly received praise for working the ball long, short and through the lines in previous rounds but in the first half we only managed to retain 7/26 of our long restarts in the first half. Of these, we only ran the ball or went short on 2 of the 15 short puckouts.
Failing to navigate Nolan
From the long deliveries out of defence, we were unable to get over Billy Nolan with the Roanmore sweeper having 16 possessions in the first half including 3 direct interceptions. The HOTD was baffled by the Sunday game’s dismissal of Nolan on Sunday night, it smacked of laziness towards the viewer and disrespect to many that Canning and Cusack along with Jacqui Hurley approached this selection.
Although Nolan was not as influential in the second half, he still had another 7 possessions including 4 interceptions as Tipperary looked for that coveted goal. What seemed like a baffling decision by some less knowledgeable commentators made perfect sense when Jack Fagan or Callum Lyons are not suited to playing in the sweeping position. Its disappointing but hardly surprising The Sunday Game don’t know of Nolan’s outfield pedigree with his club and college.
The first half scoreboard below tells its own story when summarising the previous points. Tipperary have prided themselves on recovering the ball yet only managed 13 turnovers in the whole half. Waterford managed 17 from open play as well as total dominance of our own restarts.
The puckout stats make for grim reading from a Tipperary perspective. There are many people who rubbish any numbers in hurling but 29% retention compared to the Deise’s 80% is startling to say the least.
Second Half
Although Neil Montgomery begun the second half with a point from a throw-in, it was Tipperary who got the next 5 points of the half. Aided by the breeze, our puckouts were further and we managed to win some breaking ball to win frees which were converted by Noel McGrath. Conor Bowe’s shot in the 37th forced a 65 but the Moyne-Templetuohy clubman will be regret his placement.
In the 44th minute we got our first point off the Waterford puckout after eventually forcing a turnover in the middle third. Things were looking up and in the 48th minute, it looked as if Mark Kehoe had created a goal scoring opportunity only to be penalised for steps. On replay, Kehoe had taken 5 or 6 steps, which is more than the 4 allowed but what is frustrating is the lack of consistency in the application of the rule. There are many other scores in the championship in which the attacker can take 8+ steps.
The HOTD would actually like to see the steps rule be strictly enforced as it would once again reduced possession based hurling. Like the throw, it is generally ignored, except for the odd occasion which unfortunately seems to come against Tipperary once again.
Waterford scored from the resultant free as Tipperary let Shaun O’Brien find the impressive Mark Fitzgerald who delivered inside. Michael Breen give away a free that baffled everyone except John Keenan and Waterford had extended their lead to 6 in a series of play that could have shrunk the gap to 2. A four point swing.
Two minutes later, the game was over when Waterford scored a goal after errors by Rhys Shelly and Bryan O’Mara. From a Tipperary perspective, there were so many aspects of this play that smacked of learning the hard way on the job. Waterford wise, the joy of seeing sharpshooter Hutchinson near the goal.
Final minutes mayhem
Although the game and entry to the Munster final was out of sight, Tipperary had to continue to play. 5 points was the target yet Tipperary seemed intent to force goals in the final five minutes which was absurd. Noel McGrath did have one shot which was a genuine goal chance but there must have four of five occasions where Tipperary played dinky balls into the full forward that lacked any purpose and an easy tap over point was on. Had Tipperary lost by six and Cork-Limerick finished in a draw then this would have been the only talking point in Tipperary this week.
The Breaking Ball
The numbers can never be strong if your not on the second ball or the breaks. Although we did have more turnovers than Waterford in the second half, it was too little too late as Waterford managed the game well. As Tipperary attempted to speed up the game, Waterford won a free which followed a 30-60 second stoppage as the injured player was attended to.
It was just one of those days with the huge consolation being we still remain in the championship.
In the short term, its about getting as many bodies back on the playing fields as possible with our panel reserves being tested to its limit. With so many injuries, is it time to draft in some of the more promising u20s like Sean Kenneally or Darragh Stakelum. Is there a chance some of the men of yesteryear return? Usually, such statements would be scoffed at but with so many wounded soldiers it will definitely be have to considered, if only to make up the numbers for internal games.
For Tipperary, there are so many lessons they can take with them going forward and should this year be a success it will be compared favourably to the 2010 Munster SHC defeat to Cork or 2019 Munster final mauling v Limerick.
Win against Offaly and we are back on the high horse once again. But lets not get too far ahead of ourselves this time, it has not served us well on this occasion.
Hurler on the ditch 