During his presentation at the GAA coaching conference in January, Eamon O’Shea told a story from Tipperary’s League game against Kilkenny in 2014. Tipp led by six points at the break but O’Shea changed course at half-time and decided to try and hold what they had. Tipp played the second half with five forwards and a rotating sweeper.
O’Shea had never played that card before and it didn’t work. Kilkenny outscored Tipp by 3-11 to 1-5 and won by six. Switching into defensive mode had never been part of Tipp’s identity under O’Shea and the fallout carried into the following weeks. When Tipp lost a third successive league game, the players vented their frustration at the manager.
“They said to me,” said O’Shea “‘You told us about your vision, that we would never ever defend, that we would always attack. Why didn’t you trust us against Kilkenny?’ It was a legitimate question from players who had a manager who told them, ‘This is the way we play’. Because I got giddy and felt we could beat Kilkenny,
I decided to go defensive. I made a mistake. We never did it again in that context. If we had a view of ourselves as a team, that’s the way we wanted to play. As a manager or coach, you have to have your eye firmly fixed on your vision. There is no point in wobbling.”
The attacking system that Tipp developed under O’Shea was all about interchanging and the exploitation of space, governed by heads-up, short to medium-length stick passing. Michael Ryan was O’Shea’s right-hand man but he was a different type of player, an uncompromising, tough, direct defender. Similar to O’Shea, his personality and coaching philosophy will be reflected in his team, in his vision of how he wants Tipp to play. Already, it clearly has been.
Against Dublin, Tipp aerially bombarded their attack with 49 long balls, winning 27 (56%). They mined 14 points from that possession. Jason Forde was excellent, notching 1-5 from play. Four of his scores originated from feeding off long breaking ball, coming at pace and smart angles. Forde also set up John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer for two points from a similar method of play. Forde’s movement was right out of the O’Shea playbook but Tipp’s forwards had never fed off so much long, breaking ball under their previous manager.
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Ryan wants to create a new identity for Tipp now. Privately, he felt the shorter, more precise, game needed a greater proportion of time and work to polish compared to the more direct style. And he went looking for bigger and more physical men to try and adapt to, and carry out, that style.
It worked against Dublin but that was never an accurate gauge. Liam Rushe was missing. Dublin were defensively wide open. They brought no physicality. Dublin had 15 missed tackles alone. Going to Kilkenny was always going to be the true barometer of a new style and the stats reflected as much.
Tipp played 44 long balls into their attack and won just 12 (27%). Their scoring return (seven scores) from that possession was also halved. They played just 10 short stick-passes over the 70 minutes. At stages, the contrasting styles was like an optical illusion; Tipp were always going long; Kilkenny were spraying the ball around up front in a manner Tipp had once patented under O’Shea.
Tipp have been down this road before. After O’Shea left in 2010, Declan Ryan and Tommy Dunne developed and tweaked his system to become more direct. That long-ball tactic yielded a dividend of 4-13 in the 2011 Munster final but Waterford were defensively naïve and Tipp’s long-ball tactic didn’t work afterwards against a compact Dublin defence, and an aggressive Kilkenny rearguard.
When O’Shea returned in 2013, it took Tipp 18 months before fully becoming comfortable again with a more measured passing and movement style. Yet after being almost overprotective of the ball in last year’s Munster final, Tipp loaded Seamus Callanan with long, direct ball against an orthodox Galway defence and he cut loose. His three goals (and the penalty Callanan won) stemmed from high balls lamped on top of the square, all of which he won cleanly.
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Callanan has been injured to date. New, young players are part of a new journey but finding a happy medium between O’Shea and Ryan’s styles will still be important in not restricting the expressive personality O’Shea cultivated and which is still of this group’s DNA. Some Tipp players won’t be fully comfortable with always driving long ball forward. Certain Tipp forwards won’t want long ball continually bombed on top of them all day either.
Against Dublin and Kilkenny, Tipp loaded 48 (24 in each match) long balls straight down the central channel, or to the edge of the square. How will that tactic work today against a compact and highly organised Waterford defence?
In the concluding slide of O’Shea’s presentation in January, the first line read: ‘Believe in your brand while constantly seeking improvement’. That is the challenge now for Ryan and his players. Eyes firmly fixed on the vision. No point in wobbling.