GER LOUGHNANE HAS rarely been flavour of the month in Tipperary and he’s irked Premier County fans again by insisting that the Premier County won’t feature in the 2015 championship shake-up.
Referring to Tipperary as “nearly men”, Clare’s 1995 and 1997 All-Ireland winning supremo Loughnane cast doubt on Eamon O’Shea’s chances of claiming silverware in the summer.
Speaking on RTÉ’s League Sunday, Loughnane predicted that Tipp will be a “big force” but doesn’t expect them to get over the line in the race for provincial and national honours.
Referring first of all to last Sunday’s All-Ireland final replay defeat to Kilkenny, Loughnane commented: “At the end of that game, coming out of Croke Park, I said that’s the end of that Tipperary team.
“Looking through their panel, a lot of the players had pushed on in age, and some of the players who were on the panel, you’d say they were never going to make it.
“And then, to copperfasten the thing, in the first game of this League, when they played Dublin, you had Paul Curran at full-back and Conor O’Mahony at centre back, players who have given great service but you couldn’t see them being championship players any more.
“But after that, Eamon O’Shea brought in new players like Michael Breen, Ronan Maher, John McGrath and Niall O’Meara and they really revitalised the whole Tipperary thing and they would have been way better in the League except for they had so many injuries.
“Most of their defence was nearly gone in the League. They will be back as a big force but having been the nearly men so often, can they make the breakthrough?
“Eamon O’Shea has still not won a trophy with this team and it’s his third year. Declan Ryan won two Munster championships.
“Can Eamon O’Shea break through and win a trophy with the team? Personally, I doubt it.”
Perhaps not surprisingly, Loughnane has backed his native county to achieve big things, but only if they get over Limerick in a massive Munster SHC quarter-final showdown on May 24.
“I’d look on that first game as an old style, championship knockout game.
“Clare were relegated in the League and there was a bit of turbulence over the winter but in spite of what people think, things are going very well in Clare, they’re training really well and are very united.
“They have so much talent and they’ll be looking at Waterford and saying, ‘they’re a lot younger than us, these fellas have won nothing at U21 level, they won a minor (All-Ireland) but we won four U21s, and if we’re not ahead of them, there’s something desperately wrong.’
“So they’ll get a bit of incentive from that. I still think that if they get past that first game and build a bit of momentum, they will be a real force.
“And if, when things get serious later on, they have all of their team back, footballers, fellas in America and all of that, they will be a real force when they get to Croke Park.”
Pure and utter bullshit
Is he trying set himself up as the George Hook of GAA or something?
Nonsense. Tipp have just as much chance as the next team. There’s a pool of about 5 or 6 teams who could win it.
Loughnane uses every opportunity he gets to have a go at Tipp, he has done since the 90′s, however, on this occasion, all he is saying is that he doesn’t think they will win the all Ireland but they have a very good team, sure what’s wrong with that?
Well if Babs can make judgement calls against Waterford like he dose Im sure Loughnane can comment on Tipp’s chances for 2015
Nothing new there every year for the last 6 or 7 years hes said the same thing at this time of year .change the record ger .the team that has beaten tipp has won the all ireland 5 out of the last 6 years & that team happened to be the greatest team of all time .i wouldnt write tipp off just yet
He’s only sayin what a lot of people in Tipp already think. Iv seen them lose 3 all Ireland’s in 6 yrs and the tag of nearly men is hard to take but pretty accurate. I don’t agree the team is Gettin old, callinan, all the mahers, bubbles, the mcgraths, barret, Barry, these lads are all still young n have plenty left in them. Time is tickin on though, they need to be winning things with the talent that’s on the team! Championship wide open this year and Tipp are as equipped as anyone to contend!
In fairness, as a Tipp man myself, I partially agree with Loughnane’s brief assessment about the pressure bring on O’Shea to finally deliver some silverware, and honestly only the All Ireland title will suffice after previous chances. But as you said Ciananto, the regeneration in talent in this team has been very encouraging, we unearthed some very promising young talent last year and a few other lads coming through this year in the league, so I’m actually quite positive for Tipp’s future, but also a little impatient like so many Tipp supporters – looking forward to the Championship!
he’s talking rubbish,tipp and Kilkenny in the final again,loughnane is just stirring it up,Clare have a serious dislike of tipp and he’s just carrying it on,should motivate them really
Not easy being a dual county
Good man ger lock!
McCarthy is as good as on its way to Tipp then.
Same old problem with tipp fans, think they have a god given right to win all irelands,What a lovely bunch of fine talented young hurlers they have let them go out an earn an all ireland this year 2015 its there for the taking. The championship has moved on with lots of fie teams in munster and leinster well capable of winning an all ireland. Come on the Deise and let the best team win in september