Dismal performance meant it was an utterly forgettable day for Tipperary hurling

Students of Leaving Certificate English will be familiar with the term pathetic fallacy. It’s a literary device where elements of the inanimate world, such as the weather, are used to reflect the human mood. So, for example, sinister events happen on dark, stormy nights.

Laois Hire O’Moore Park, Portlaoise, to give it its full title, was a drizzly, dull and dreary venue on Sunday last. The weather offered an apt metaphor for the mood of the Tipperary fans as they watched their side fumble to an eight-point exit in a league semi-final.

A friend said it left him recalling an equally bleak event – Tipperary’s championship exit to Clare at Ennis in 1986. At least back then we had a backdrop of emerging talent to populate the championship years ahead. Today, no such future seems obvious.

This was a dismal performance, one that left the followers crestfallen. Apart from a brief sparkle early in the second half there was nothing to cheer. A disastrous opening ten minutes and an embarrassing final ten, bookended an utterly forgettable day for Tipperary, a day when a free-taking fiasco compounded all the other shortcomings.

Start as you mean to continue is an old motto, one which highlights the importance of getting off on the right foot. It’s a philosophy that was lost on Tipperary on Sunday last. Seldom has a Tipp team looked so passive in the opening ten minutes or so.

It wasn’t that Clare were brilliant. They were workmanlike and efficient in what they did, but they mostly operated with the meek acquiescence of the opposition. All over Tipperary were off the pace, Clare finding scope to easily run off a sequence of points that eventually stretched out to eight-nil.

It was a disastrous start, one which ultimately set the tone for the day. We came close to retrieving some ground with a move that featured Willie Connors and Conor Stakelum in the lead-up. Jason Forde took the final pass but his shot on the spin blazed over from close range. It would be his only flag from play.

At the other end Mark Rodgers exposed our defensive shortcomings as he cut through the middle but the finish slipped just outside the right post.

Eventually we got the break that brought us back into the contest. It was a move which showed that hurling at its best can be simple, despite all attempts to complicate it. Barry Hogan fetched a high lob and fed Bryan O’Mara, who in turn found Dan McCormack around midfield. McCormack dispatched to Jake Morris just to the right of goal and in front of his marker.

Three passes, three deliveries brought play from one goal to the other in a matter of seconds. Morris did his characteristic little jink to lose his marker before netting off his weaker left side.

For all their opening lethargy Tipperary were now just three adrift but the effort wasn’t sustained. Forde missed a pair of frees from distance and the job was transferred to Gearoid O’Connor but with the same result.

Clare were always more economical from play and frees and, as a result, the lead stretched out once more.

We might have had another goal nearing half-time when Forde got around John Conlon near the posts but was pulled back. It was a point of debate afterwards, one which highlights a glaring anomaly in the rules. Should it have been a penalty? No. The cynical foul rule states that the player must be tripped, pulled down or struck with the hurley. None of the above happened so a simple free was the correct call.

And here’s where the law is an ass. This was clearly a cynical, goal-preventing foul but it doesn’t meet the terms of the (inadequate) rule. This has been obvious since the rule was introduced but there’s been no effort at amendment.

Should Conlon have been booked and thereby red-carded (he was previously yellow-carded for a late hit on Willie Connors)? Yes, of course. If a simple flick earns yellow, as we saw in Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday, then surely a deliberate pull back to prevent a goal deserves at least that sanction. In this case the referee baulked at what would have been a major call.

Anyway, we were seven-down at half-time and I can only imagine the verbals in the dressing room at the break. This effort was simply not good enough. Alan Tynan replaced Darragh Stakelum and Sean Hayes was in for ‘Bonner’ Maher. There was an instant, if brief, kick-back from Tipperary on resuming.

From the throw-in Conor Bowe raced through before laying off to Sean Hayes, who hit the rigging with his first touch. An immediate free by Forde had the advantage back to just three. Within ten minutes of the restart a rejuvenated Tipperary had the margin back to just two points following a score by Sean Kenneally.

Tipperary’s play now was more urgent, players getting into the action more forcefully, hunting in numbers, taking on opponents. All three substitutes got on the scoresheet. Sadly, however, it was a case of flash and fizzle. A free-taking exhibition by Aidan McCarthy kept Clare edging ahead and the final quarter was a disaster zone for Tipperary.

The stats sum it up best. For the final twenty minutes or so of action we scored a single Sean Ryan point from a free, against five flags for Clare. We became even more sloppy and shapeless. At times there was scarcely a player in Clare’s half; on other occasions Jake Morris stood as a lone, isolated figure surrounded by several Clare opponents.

The frustration showed with the Nenagh man collecting a second yellow for a careless high flick on an opponent. In the first half Craig Morgan was the victim of a loose hurley to the helmet but no card was shown. Elements of the refereeing were very inconsistent.

By the end the free-taking became shambolic. Sean Ryan was the fourth option with the task and some of his late efforts are best forgotten. Most worryingly the team effort just fizzled out. It’s never pleasant to see a Tipperary side toss in the towel.

There were few enough credits on the Tipperary side after such a chastening experience. I thought Craig Morgan and Ronan Maher were the pick of our defence, with some individual items from the rest. Willie Connors put in a decent shift at midfield and I’m not sure I’d have withdrawn Conor Bowe, who had some useful inputs also.

In attack I’d confine the credits to Jake Morris, the one constant threat despite a lot of attention. The subs, at least initially, impacted in the second half but, ultimately, that impact wasn’t sustained.

It’s a tough one to take. The management will ship a lot of flak, some bits deserved, much of it typical of social media nowadays and best ignored. However, Liam Cahill and company can’t escape blame when the performance is so flat and so many individual items go wrong.

The vibe from training was all very positive but they don’t seem capable of transferring the training ground routine onto the playing pitch on key dates. That is a frustration, one that didn’t begin on Sunday because, apart from the Galway game, we were poor enough in other games, even against second-rate opposition.

The free-taking problem will right itself on another day, so I wouldn’t be unduly worried about that particular malfunction. Other aspects, though, are more problematic.

There’s a five-week hiatus now before we kick off our championship bid on April 28 at the Gaelic Grounds. That’s ample time to sort out niggling injuries and reform and refocus. Ultimately, it’s championship that will colour the year – hopefully with summer metaphors of sunshine and brightness.