The Tipperary GAA Discussion Thread

I think ye will find that between the Limerick and Cork game Cahill and his Donegal friend ran that Waterford team into the ground. So when the knockout game versus Cork came that Waterford team were flat as a pancake due to being overtrained the previous week's. When the waterford county board sought feedback from the players their was some criticism of the overtraining. Cahill did not like this. However even the most inept of managers should know not to overtrain a team in the week of a big game. Be careful what ye wish for. He did a good job with Waterford but after this summer he was a spent force. On another note it won't matter for tipp who the manager is as the players are just not their to win an all Ireland.

Best man should get the job, let's see the nominations.

Who'd get your vote?

You'd have said that (to several counties including Limerick and Tipperary) with five minutes to go in the 2018 All Ireland semi final too. Big mouth talk is all well and good but things don't always work out that way. On balance Tipperary probably should appoint a manager just in case.

Always been a problem in my memory. Always out numbered. And even when outnumbering opposition, out shouted. Support is always a vast majority of grumbling, philosophical experts who could do better if they got the chance as a player or selector or manager.

Only Sheedy & O'Shea teams got real support. But still outnumbered by most counties. Particularly bad this year.

Serious lull in interest after the English & Fox era. Eoin Kelly brought a crowd back out. Only magical hurlers or big, big games bring out supporters.

It's a serious issue for a long time.

People talk about being pissed off by other supporters. Nothing frustrates me more at games than our non-attending or the quiet grumbling f**kers who show up.

Probably part of it. But sure, never really a big attendance when they look like they're going to win either.

There are big divisions within the county too. Not just bitter club rivalries. But plenty parts of it that don't see itself or its clubs as getting a fair rattle.

That's rubbish really. It's a seductive repeatable one-liner which people enjoy as an alternative to thinking for themselves. But that's all it is. Limerick v Kilkenny Nowlan Park 2017 - 15k, Limerick v Kilkenny Thurles 2018 - 18k. It's probably impossible to fill Croke Park fir a hurling final during peak holiday season but they'll go a long way on doing so tomorrow. What's the difference? The prospect of winning.

Kilkenny v Wexford 13k at Nowlan Park this year. Imagine how "amazing" the Wexford support would be if in the final tomorrow? 2018 Leinster hurling final Wexford v Galway 60k. Two years earlier when they met another county with "great supporters" (Cork) in Thurles it was 15k.

ALL supporters go to see their team win. When that prospect dwindles so does support. There's people on the Kilkenny thread who after the county lost to Galway and Wexford earlier in the championship (temporarily forgotten) who said they would never go to another Kilkenny match while Brian Cody was manager. Suddenly they have changed their minds, obviously unwilling to give up the possibility of a good day out for any ideological reasons. And that's because there is no ideology for most supporters. Winning is the only attraction.

Also under the round robin format being a fiercely loyal supporter is also a rich man's business or at least a generous disposable income man's pursuit.

But bottom line, anyone criticising supporters of another county just doesn't acknowledge what the driver behind support for all counties is. The huge majority are there so that mundane lives are lifted for a while by some vicarious glow from a county team's win. Take that possibility away and most will choose the armchair. It's conditional.

It's the same reason Irish people choose to support successful rich and mainstream English soccer teams rather than lesser clubs. They enjoy the buzz and the success or at least potential of it. In hurling terms they just happen to be born in particular counties but the support dynamic is really no different.

People tend to obsess a bit over attendances when their own county is going reasonably well and they wonder why everyone isn't as enthusiastic as they are. But this is sometimes done at the expense of honesty and an acknowledgement of the actual dynamics of county team support as consistently shown across all counties.