Tipperary's hurling championship campaign rolls on, but only just

A Munster Senior Hurling Championship round robin campaign that had launched in such promising style for Tipperary in Ennis five weeks previously ended around 5.30 last Sunday evening with the result of the Limerick/Cork encounter being anxiously awaited to determine Tipp’s championship fate, after they had suffered a shock six-points defeat by Waterford in the final group game at FBD Semple Stadium.

As it transpired, Tipperary missed out on the Munster final place they were generally expected to claim, although they were still relieved to claim the third qualifying spot in the province, courtesy of Limerick’s narrow win over Cork. This means that Tipp’s season rolls on to an All-Ireland championship preliminary quarter-final against Offaly in Tullamore on the weekend of June 17/18.

If they are successful in that game, Tipperary will play the runners-up of the Leinster final between Galway and Kilkenny on the following Saturday, June 24.

The nightmare scenario of an early championship exit reared its ugly head on Sunday, as Tipperary stuttered and stumbled their way through the game against a rejuvenated Waterford team, while a draw looked a distinct possibility in a closely-contested tussle in the other game in Limerick.

Despite being pointless at the foot of the table, Waterford showed that they weren’t in Thurles on a sunny afternoon merely to make up the numbers, as they saved the best wine until last - albeit too late to rescue their season - with a sparkling display that gave them a first Munster championship win in 13 months.

All of Tipperary’s good work in their previous three games looked as if it would be completely undone by a disjointed, lethargic display. The Tipperary supporters tried their best all afternoon to rouse their team but it just didn’t happen. For most of the match it looked as if the clock had been turned back twelve months to last season, when a misfiring Tipperary team lost all four games in the province.

Eventually surviving by the skin of their teeth, the day served as a major reality check for the county, as their cough was softened after an unbeaten run in the first three rounds.

Just one win in their last ten championship games is also a sobering statistic for Tipperary supporters to digest this week.

The exertions of the drawn game against Limerick the previous week may well have taken a physical toll, although they didn’t affect Limerick in quite the same way.

However, there could also have been an element of psychological distraction as well, when the group might have felt they had one foot in the provincial final and were facing a team without key players such as Jamie Barron and Austin Gleeson, and which had lost all three of its matches.

In any event, manager Liam Cahill and his players have work to do before a date with destiny against Offaly in a fortnight's time.