Tipperary: Sort your shorts and pull your socks up

It’s the little things, isn’t it? The finer details. The small print. As Tipperary took to Tom Semple’s field on the first Sunday in June I noticed (being a man of some considerable style!) that a mishmash of shorts were the order of the day. Why? As the game progressed socks replaced shorts in my thoughts with Tipperary’s alarming inability to pull them up when the going got tough a source of huge frustration. Why?

#nothingbeatsbeingthere

It was always 'around the next corner'. Always 'just on another bit'. We were always 'nearly there'. Páirc Uí Chaoimh, the spiritual home of the ancient game in the People's Republic of Cork, or just Cork, as it's more commonly referred to. I'd need more than one pair of hands to count the amount of times I've attended matches there. Always the same atmosphere. Always the same tingle. Always memorable. Always.

Who needs Ó Muircheartaigh anyway?

The news that David Nalbandian had been defaulted from the Queen's club final mustn't have been relayed to Martin Kiely on Sunday afternoon. If it had he would have surely mentioned it. Very little wasn't mentioned during his radio commentary of what was a pulsating Munster hurling semi-final at Semple Stadium. From German chancellor Angela Merkel to chickens scrapping for bits of bread to diving at the European Championships, Kiely covered it. Maybe co-commentator and well-known tennis lover Ken Hogan (that's pure fiction there) kept the information to himself? Perhaps the former Tipperary netminder Sky Plus-ed it, or is it Sky+ed? Not important. 

'An early kick up the hole never hurt anyone'

So I've this friend. Sean Drummond is his name. Actually he's a friend of a friend. A man not too dissimilar to my good self. The ancient games are what float his boat. He'd have little or no interest in the Euros. At least I don't think he would. No, his scene centres around the fortunes of the capital's hurlers and footballers. He posted on my Facebook Timeline this morning. 'Lucky boys against Limerick yesterday,' he said. 'Huge improvement needed after that performance.' I agreed and added that Tipperary 'showed great composure' and that the experience 'will do them no harm at all' in the long run. 

Sean Drummond knows what he's talking about. He knows that custard is no use to anyone without jelly. He knows that one swallow never made a summer. 'An early kick up the hole never hurt anyone'... He knows that, along with everyone else.

Corbett 'happy enough to be just playing like'

We all know that Thurles is the home of hurling. That’s a given. You would assume then that Tipperary would be the team to beat when it came to the ancient game. That’s not a given. Down through the years Tipperary were a team to fear, a team to be respected, a team to measure your sides performance off. But the Premier County have slipped down the pecking order in recent times and it will be seven years this September since a beaming Declan Carr climbed the steps of the Hogan Stand. 

Tipperary have not gone away. Far from it. But the recent emergence of teams in Munster such as Waterford and Limerick and the continued dominance of Kilkenny and Cork have left the Tipperary hurling faithful wondering if the good times will ever return.