Say what you like about the 2024 hurling league, it so far hasn’t lacked drama. On another perishing Sunday across the country, the games were close enough to keep the blood flowing through the bundled-up spectators in the stands. Even in the encounter with the widest finishing margin between the sides, Limerick only managed to shrug off lowly Westmeath in the closing minutes to win by six.
In Thurles, Tipperary came out with a 1-26 to 0-24 win over Galway but needed an injury-time penalty from the outstanding Gearóid O’Connor to make sure of it. They twice frittered away hefty leads – six points in the first half, eight points in the second – and would have been kicking themselves throughout their fortnight break if they hadn’t seen it out. Afterwards, Liam Cahill was sanguine enough about how it had all rolled out. You can be when you win, in fairness.
“It’s a mixture of Galway figuring you out and cutting off your options,” he said, trying to explain how his side could be so dominant and yet still get caught. “And it’s areas maybe of us switching off. And it’s areas that are down to the heavy block of training that all teams are doing.
“They’re not machines, they can’t stay shooting the lights out for a full 70 minutes. It’s not possible, even though we try to do that. It’s a combination of a lot of things. You’d just be hoping that come the business end of the year that you would have that stuff kind of perfected. That you wouldn’t be ebbing and flowing up and down like that too often.
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“But look, the character when Galway came back at us was great. You always love to see that. And it’s not surprising to me really with the way these fellas are putting in the work behind the scenes. They’re really trying to build towards that. We know down the road that there are going to be situations later on in the year that are going to be as intense, if not more intense, than what we faced here. So it was good practice towards that for both sides.”
For Henry Shefflin, the hesitant start to both halves was obviously the killer. His team were lucky to only be 0-11 to 0-5 down after 20 minutes – twice Tipp looked to have got in behind for a goal chance only to over-elaborate at a crucial moment. But the very fact that they didn’t lie down and resign themselves to a hammering gave him plenty to bring into the break with him.
“You can feel very exposed there,” Shefflin said. “And you say, ‘Jesus, what way is this going to turn?’ But I think the lads really dug in. They got better structure. They figured stuff out themselves.
“I think they figured stuff out on the pitch themselves and gradually worked their way back into it. And I think just some of those basic errors just hurt us a lot. We had a lot of turnovers from the defence trying to work the ball out. We’re asking them to work the ball out but you have to execute that well, otherwise Tipp will punish you and that’s what happened.”
In Walsh Park, Clare emerged with a point to spare over Waterford, just about keeping the home side at arms’ length in a tight finish to win by 0-20 to 1-16. In a scrappy game where neither side were really able to make good use of a strong wind, Clare were always that cut above and eight points from full-forward Aidan McCarthy proved crucial in the end.
“We’re happy enough with that,” Brian Lohan said afterwards. “Happy enough to get the result. A hard place to come. Good, tough, robust game. A lot of physicality in it. So happy to come out of it but conscious that it is the league – it’s no big deal either.”
As for Davy Fitzgerald’s side, scoring just seven points with the wind in the second half was never going to get it done. But much like his Clare counterpart, he was in no mind to get too het up about it all. Waterford’s biggest issue right now is getting bodies back on the pitch – he was missing anything up to a dozen players who would either be in the first team or right around the fringes of it. When that comes right, Fitzgerald will have a fuller view of the picture in front of him.
“I’d like to have them all,” he said. “I just can’t do anything about it. We’re going to go out against Cork and Cork are going to be absolutely like lunatics. Having no points on the board, they have to throw the kitchen sink at it. We’re going to be under pressure.
“I take heart from the new fellas we’re bringing on. If I’m the Waterford public, all I can ask for is that lads are going out there fighting tooth and nail. If you were going into the game today missing that many, you’d say we haven’t a hope.”
