When you win six games, it can’t be bad, says Tipp boss O’Shea

When you win, you can talk. You don’t have to throw an elbow but you can stand up with your back straight and your chest out and let it be known you are who you are and you know what you know. So it was maybe no surprise some of the Tipperary squad and management thought they’d get some stuff off their chests once the crowds had cleared.

‘Paddling this canoe’

“We’re under no illusions,” said tireless midfielder

James Woodlock

, “it’s only ourselves and whoever is in that dressingroom that is paddling this canoe. There was no one here for us in the last couple of weeks after the Limerick game. “In fairness to the Tipp public, they came out and supported us against Galway and they got us over the line when we went six points down.

“But enough had been written about us to cut the back off us, I suppose, since the Limerick game. But we just work away and we know we have the hurlers in there.

“We lost the game against Limerick but we were in the game the whole way.”

It was a theme his manager touched on as well. Eamon O’Shea doesn’t do bad-mannered but he can be indignant when the mood takes him.

His preferred method is to ever-so gently remind his audience he trusts numbers more than he trusts feelings and for him, empirical evidence trumps gut every time.

“I’d ask you to reassess the last 12 weeks since the Galway game in Pearse Stadium,” he said. “I think we’ve played eight times and won six.

“We drew a league final where I believe we should have won it, but we lost in extra-time. And we lost in the last minute against Limerick.

“So I just think there needs to be some reassessment of that from commentators. When you win six games, it surely can’t all be bad. I know some people see games that teams weren’t trying but we kept winning.

“The loss to Limerick was not a good result, certainly. But there was a cycle where we were within a range of playing well.

“If you go outside that range, you have a problem but I didn’t feel that we went outside that range. We didn’t play particularly well against Limerick. I’m not saying the assessment was completely wrong but you just have to look at it in total.”

For Dublin, it was another non-performance. Another day of failing to measure up to the expectations they’ve set for themselves. Another game where the level they thought they were at turned out to be higher than the reality.

For all the advances they've made under Anthony Daly, too many of them have ended like this.

"A heartbreaking performance," was the verdict of wing back Mick Carton.

“All the training we did, you think you’re ready and we just didn’t show up again. That’s two results in a row, so it’s back to the drawing board for next year.

“I don’t think anyone can put their finger on why. You think your preparation’s all done, but you have to go out and want the ball. And we didn’t want the ball enough out there.

‘Out-fought us’

“The Tipp lads out-fought us for every ball, and it’s just not good enough. That’s the second result in a row and it’s just very disappointing.

“You have to hurl when you cross the white line. You can have all the gimmicks in the world, but you have to want the ball. We were dropping simple balls out there and just didn’t look the team we have been of late. It’s just so disappointing.”

It’s put to him that bit by bit, the momentum of 2013’s Leinster title win has dissipated.

“Well after the last two performances, yeah, probably. I’ll never mind losing if you perform on the pitch and play with a bit of freedom. We didn’t do that the last two days and it’s just not good enough at this stage. We’re a mature team, we shouldn’t be going out playing like that.

“Every year you step on the field you want to go forward and we went one step backwards this year. But it’s a very young team, will come back stronger next year. We’ve a lot to work on.”