LIMERICK have had their warning, which is why you’d fear for Tipperary going to the Gaelic Grounds today.
John Kiely’s men were dead and buried last weekend and nine points down in Ennis before outstanding individual performances rescued them against Clare.
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Gearóid Hegarty was immense but they shot ten wides in the first half, with Diarmaid Byrnes a big culprit.
Séamus Flanagan and Tom Morrissey got the curly finger before an hour had even been played and the doubts I had around their starting forward line came to pass.
Byrnes’ second-half free went all the way into the net but that came with a serious stroke of luck as Aaron Gillane’s touch appeared to go unnoticed which would have meant a square ball.
Gillane had two chances to put the game to bed in the first half and stabbed home from close range when Hegarty’s effort came off the post.
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But again, the square-ball calls went unheard and the goal stood when it should have been disallowed.
Cork’s Colm Lyons was in charge. He is a good referee and I rate him but he seriously needs to consider changing his umpires on the back of those incredibly poor decisions.
Kiely was a relieved man at the final whistle.
I’m surprised he’s only made one change for the blue and gold coming to town with Seán Finn replacing the injured Mike Casey but it could be a different story come throw-in.
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His bench made a massive impact last weekend and it’s time he moved away from the tried and trusted and gave the likes of Donnacha Ó Dálaigh a starting spot.
In all my years following Tipp, we’ve been down in the dumps plenty of times with no expectation and it was all doom and gloom. It feels a bit like that again at the moment.
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Cathal Barrett is a huge loss at corner-back after suffering a recurrence of a hamstring injury against Laois in the league.
You just cannot buy that sort of experience in your last line of defence and using Ronan Maher at full-back is really robbing Peter to pay Paul.
In all the tradition and history we’ve had with Tipp hurling, I’ve yet to see any of our great players go from wing-back to full-back and perform — and I’m yet to be convinced Ronan Maher will fill that void.
From midfield to 15, nobody can pick the team with real confidence for those eight positions.
All of those players failed in the league semi-final in my book as Clare hammered them 1-27 to 2-13 last month in Portlaoise.
A league semi-final is the worst place to fall like that when the Championship is in sight and that’s what happened against the Banner at O’Moore Park.
I know they’ve been to Portugal on a training camp to get some serious work done but Liam Cahill is going to be going out the dressing-room door this evening with a largely untried bunch.
WIN OR BUST
Cork welcome Clare to Páirc Uí Chaoimh and whoever loses this game will probably be out of the Championship already.
It’s scandalous to think that a major hurling county’s season will be pretty much over tonight when most football counties will still have something to play for in June.
Clare deserve a lot of credit for how they performed last Sunday but must be so downbeat after blowing that nine-point lead.
The first question that needs to be asked is of their goalkeeper. I’ve aired my doubts around Eibhear Quilligan before and how he let Byrnes’ free go all the way into the net baffles me, regardless of whether Gillane got a touch or not. Ó Dálaigh’s shot was poor and straight at him, then somehow Quiligan let it pass and all of a sudden the game was over.
Going to Leeside to face a Cork team with their backs against the wall after losing to Waterford is a massive task and it’s mad to think Clare could go from Limerick’s biggest threat to hanging on by a thread if they lose.
I’m not sure if they can pull it off, because I’m expecting a massive performance from Cork.
Antrim had a brilliant win over Wexford yesterday but Galway against Kilkenny is the only game worth looking at in the Leinster Championship at the moment, and they’ll probably meet again in the provincial final on June 8.
Henry Shefflin has been going up and down that road to Galway for three years now and you can’t say with any real confidence that things are improving a huge amount for him in.
Back-to-back Leinster final losses to Kilkenny and All-Ireland semi-final defeats to Limerick have been the story of his reign so far and he’ll be very unhappy with how they conceded 2-14 against Carlow last weekend.
His old team-mate Derek Lyng is a proud man and he wants everyone to share that pride with him in the Kilkenny dressing room.
With the squad he has I don’t think Kilkenny are All-Ireland contenders but they will love going to Salthill to take on that Galway team and will fancy coming home with a result.
While Eoin Murphy and Adrian Mullen are absent and it seems Eoin Cody will miss the rest of the provincial series with an ankle problem, I still fancy them.
The Tribesmen can only improve but this game is just coming a bit too soon for Galway and the Cats have a lot more about them.
