Part of the narrative last week in the build-up to Tipperary's trip to Waterford was home manager Derek McGrath's building up of the All-Ireland champions. He pointed out that their opponents had at their disposal a more mature bunch of players, whereas Waterford had to bring forward younger players more quickly.
Tipp manager Michael Ryan was mildly amused when reflecting on this after his team's six-point win but he also accepted that his panel options were coming along nicely.
The context for the county is a modern history of failing to back up All-Ireland victories with convincing second seasons. So far Tipperary are bucking that trend with a 100 per cent league record and a place at the top of the table after two rounds.
Captain Pádraic Maher is aware of the challenge. He was a member of the teams that won the 2010 All-Irelands at both senior and under-21 level but then failed to maintain those high standards as Kilkenny, whom they had denied a five-in-a-row in that final, went on to add another four Liam MacCarthy Cups to the roll of honour.
Break
“We know that if we play the same as last year then we’re going to find it hard to do what we did last year,” said Maher.
“We have to up it ourselves; we’re taking it a game at a time and we have a break for the weekend – try to get the lads involved in the Fitzgibbon through that weekend, then look forward to Clare back home after two rounds of the league away.
“Mick [Ryan] gave a lot of players a run again to show what they’re capable of. We know we’re going in the right direction, but we’ve plenty to improve on as well.”
Ryan himself pointed out that “the year is a pup yet” when asked about the assured start to the year and it’s true that championship success rarely includes much referencing of what happened the previous February. But still, there has been an intent about Tipperary this year.
One visitor to the team dressing-room in Walsh Park on Sunday said that there was an edge to the atmosphere that would more normally be detected in the championship months.
Waterford didn't play badly and selector Dan Shanahan acknowledged afterwards that there was still a gap between his young team and the champions.
“It’s just being honest. You saw them against Dublin last week in bad conditions. You see the calibre of player they can bring on to the field, it’s unbelievable. Credit to them, they’re All-Ireland champions for a reason. We must get up to their level and compete with them.”
Flattering
That display was given a further flattering gloss with the weekend’s match in Cork that saw the home side well beaten by a young Dublin team, recovering remarkably well from their Croke Park mauling by the champions.
The schedule ordains that Tipperary’s two opponents so far will be playing each other in the next round of Division One A fixtures the weekend after next.
“We’ve Dublin in two weeks’ time,” said Shanahan, “Saturday week in Croke Park. Going from [Saturday] night, you’d say it’ll suit Dublin: big wide pitch and the way their players ran was unbelievable. It really hurt Cork in the backs. But again we’ll go back. We’ll take the defeat on the chin – back to the drawing board; see where we have to improve and we will improve for Saturday week.”
Tipperary meanwhile will have their first home match against Clare, who crushed last year’s All-Ireland finalists Kilkenny: another step along the road to what might be a first league title in nine years and of course a first retained All-Ireland since 1965.
