Eimear Ryan: It's easy to be a supporter in times of plenty. Tipp need a reckoning
And During Their Moran/sportsfile Clash Brendan Supporters Pic: Championship Cork Tipperary Munster
To think that I was nearly going to take the train last Sunday. It’ll be a lark, I thought, heading to Thurles from Kent Station, the lone blue jersey in a sea of red. The banter will be mighty. Haven’t Tipp and Cork always had a special rivalry and respect for each other? Wasn’t I overcome with excitement and emotion when Patrick Horgan slotted home that penalty against Limerick, saving their season? To paraphrase another Cork legend: the championship without Cork is only half-dressed.
But by the raucous, jubilant videos of the train that popped up on friends’ social media feeds after the game, I’m glad that I drove in the end. It would have been a long rail journey. But even at the game itself, never mind the train back to Cork, there was a sense of being outnumbered. Is it that red stands out more as a colour than blue, I wondered as I looked around the stadium, or are there way more Cork fans here? As it turned out, both can be true.
If you had asked me last week what Tipp fans were like, I would have said ‘loyal’, probably basing this on the supporters I know, who are generally good to go to matches, wear the colours, and stay until the (sometimes bitter) end. But I don’t know if my extended circle is representative of Tipp fans en masse. I was dismayed to see hordes of supporters leaving midway through the second half as the game’s tide began to turn: a river of blue going up the steps and out the exits. If the players noticed in the heat of the contest, I’m sure the sight only added to their stress. Before the game, Liam Cahill had spoken about making Semple Stadium a colosseum for Cork, but here were Tipp’s own fans playing Caesar, giving the thumbs down. It seems that we still have an aristocratic snobbery about us in Tipp hurling. We’ll turn up when you give us something worth watching, is our attitude. That has to change, because it’s part of why we’re being left behind.
Tipp hurling needs a reckoning now: players, yes; management, yes; county board, yes — but supporters as well. We are at the tail-end of a great generation of players who gave us thrilling moments throughout the 2010s, and three All-Ireland titles. Some might say that it could or should have been more – I will still be talking about the great drawn final of 2014 in my dotage – but at the very least, Tipp in that decade were always competitive and thrilling. It’s easy to be a fan in years of plenty. How do we show up for our amateur players in an era of rethinking and rebuilding?
Tipp’s pride, and our self-conception as a ‘traditional county’ – whatever that means – is blinding us to the fact that we are behind the curve of modern hurling. Last weekend, Tipp somehow looked both overtrained and not fit enough at the same time. At half-time, I was happy enough with how we were competing, but the fade in the second half was devastating. Tipp no longer had the energy to chase after the ferociously-paced Cork players, and the subs that Cork were able to spring – Kingston, Lehane et al – brought Tipp’s lack of depth into sharp relief. It’s no coincidence that two of Cork’s goals came directly from tired Tipp mistakes.
Two trimmings this season, at the hands of Limerick and Cork, both of whom Tipp drew against last year, with more or less the same personnel involved. It’s a head-scratcher. None of the usual narratives apply. Sometimes when a county is struggling, the underage structures are blamed, but look at Tipp – minor Munster champions, and in an U20 Munster final on Friday night. The kids are all right. Maybe this is the flipside of having a great generation – the old guard are relied upon for so long that there’s less space for young players to break through. Then, when the great generation begin to retire – as we have seen with Paudie Maher, Brendan Maher, and Seamie Callanan over the last few years – there is an inevitable vacuum.
This is not to suggest at all that those great players overstayed their welcome. Watching Noel McGrath in the latter stages against Cork, still trying to create chances, still looking for and distributing ball, just doing Noel McGrath things – it brought home to me how lucky we are to have such a hurler. It alarms me to hear commentators making valedictory statements about him. Though he has a lot of years put down, he’s still only 33. He could aim for Horgan’s longevity, if he wanted, and part of me hopes he does.
In any case, Tipp need to dream it all up again, in the deathless words of Bono. As fans, we need to lose our all-or-nothing expectations, and learn to enjoy the process in this liminal phase. After the Limerick defeat, Liam Cahill expressed surprise, since things had been going so well in training, the bubble of the camp truly burst. I wrote in 2022 that Colm Bonnar deserved a chance to recover from that disappointing season, and I think the same of Liam Cahill now.
On Sunday, I’ll get the train to Thurles, wearing my Tipp jersey, in splendid isolation. I’ll grab food and a pint in the environs of Liberty Square, soak up the atmosphere, hopefully find a nice berth to watch one of the Leinster matches. Then I’ll walk up to Semple Stadium and settle in for an hour and a half. Clare will be sensing Tipp blood in the water; Tipp may as well go for broke and try something new. They have nothing to lose, and nothing to gain but the renewed admiration of their fans. I want to be able to give it freely.