From examiner.ie

By Diarmuid O’Flynn 

EAMONN CORCORAN can remember the bad times with Tipperary. That’s why the star wing-back appreciates this season more than most.

“I think every year that you don’t win something is disappointing. There were a couple of years there when we did not even win the first round and had to go through the back door. We went up to Croke Park and lost quite a few. We got to a quarter-final nearly every year, the only year we missed out was when we lost to Cork below in Killarney (2004).

“Every other year we played above in Croke Park and coming out of there losing is a sickening feeling, knowing that your hurling is finished for the year. Any match that we played so far this year, there was a backdoor in place. You don’t want to think about it but you knew it was there. Now we are at the semi-final stage it is win at all costs or we are gone.”

Everything this year has gone exactly to plan, however.

“The first meeting I had with Liam [Sheedy, new manager], it was great to hear that there was a one-year plan. You would not have blamed him if in his first year, he was thinking about a two or three-year plan but he had a one-year plan.

“With the Waterford Crystal (first tournament of the season, won by Tipp) fellows were fighting for their places and we kept that going through the league (also won by Tipp). Then we had the Munster championship and the way we looked at it was that there was four steps to an All-Ireland final. There was a direct route or we could go through the backdoor — we have been lucky so far (Tipp won Munster, beat Cork and Clare).

“It has been very good but to be fair to the lads, what the management are doing inside I have never seen anything like it.”

Better even than 2001, another unbeaten season for Tipp?

“It’s a different era. Back in 2001 we were as professional as you could get but now we are seven years on. It’s just the training methods, and outside of training it’s things like your diet. With a dietician everything is monitored on a daily basis, you have a daily journal.

“Every day from the moment you get up in the morning, you are focused on hurling. I know that you have to focus on work as well, but you are really focusing on being a Tipperary hurler. You’re making sure that you are eating the right things, then also we used to have gym sessions before the season began but now it is the whole way through.

“You are training on a Tuesday and Thursday and you are in the gym on a Monday and you are gearing yourself to be there for 8pm and the other lads are there as well. It is just massive and all the focus is on the team. There are 33 on the panel and you have probably 10 fellows in the background as well and what you have is a kind of a family.”

No offence to former manager Babs Keating, to whom new man Liam Sheedy gives full credit for putting everything in place to allow Tipp make further progress this year, but all this was exactly what the doctor ordered.

“Yeah. I always said that Cork raised the bar, Kilkenny raised the bar,” said Corcoran. “It is hard to put your finger on why we were not getting there but in the last 10 or 15 minutes of matches we were losing games, whereas this year we are winning games in both the league and the championship at that stage.

“We still have to learn to focus for 70 minutes because Cork nearly had us put away in the first half and then Clare came back at us strong for 10 minutes in the second half of the Munster final before Johnno’s goal (John O’Brien, superb individual effort) got us back on track; we have to learn to focus for the 70 minutes. The big difference I suppose is fitness and knowing that if we are there or thereabouts with 10 minutes to go in a game we can go on and win it.”

A lot of prayers answered in Tipp this year then, a lot of questions also, the centre back position especially. Few are in better position to assess the performances of Conor O’Mahony than half-back partner Eamonn.

“Conor has stepped into centre-back and to be honest I have played alongside Conor for the last number of years and I thought he was playing very well, even though a few people said that it took him a while to settle in there, but I thought he was very good. This year he has emerged as a huge leader. Conor is a fellow that can come across as quiet on the outside but in the dressing room he is different. He took over the captaincy for a couple of matches in the Waterford Crystal.

“The last day — I know that if I could not train for three weeks with a sore shoulder I would not have been able to hurl the way he hurled. He went three weeks without any hurling and went out and gave a man of the match performance against Clare.”

They’re ready then, in Tipperary, ready for Waterford.