Darragh Egan insists Tipperary won't feel extra pressure as reigning All-Ireland champions
Friday 13 December 2019 06:21, UK
For a county who have won the All-Ireland title with such frequency in recent times, Tipperary's inability to defend the crown has become a sore point.
Indeed, Liam MacCarthy hasn't spent two consecutive winters in the Premier County since 1964-65.
Now that the dust has settled on a remarkable 2019 for Liam Sheedy's charges, focus will soon turn to their title defence.
Can they break the duck and achieve more than just a 'one-in-a-row'?
"Reflection time is over now. We got our medals last month in Templemore, and 2019, we just parked it now at this stage," noted Tipp selector Darragh Egan.
However, he stressed that they're not feeling any added pressure now that they're champions once again.
"There may be (pressure) outside of our management and playing body, but a big focus for us in 2020 is just 2020, play the championship on its merits," he outlined.
"As Liam said recently, we're all at the bottom of the hill now. Who gets to the top, we're unsure as of now. Our championship in 2020 will be played on its merits. We will not be focusing on what happened in 2019.
"If we do what we did in 2019, there's a strong possibility we won't get out of Munster because teams will be gunning for us. We'll be just trying to improve in 2020, go up those few percentage points and see where it takes us."
A big focus for us in 2020 is just 2020, play the championship on its merits.
The focus is firmly on what's ahead of them, and the landscape in Munster has shifted in recent weeks with three of the five counties changing management.
"Liam Cahill, Brian Lohan and Kieran Kingston, those counties are going to get a bounce," he continued. "It's the same as the English Premier League. Managers are going to bring in new ideas, players are going to react to it. So all those counties are going to get a bounce.
"John Kiely is going to have Limerick in good fettle as well. So it's so difficult to get out of Munster and it will be again in 2020.
"Every time we go out, we play a round robin in Munster, all four games...you have to approach every one with a different mind frame. The game is gone tactical, and that's an area where we need to improve next year.
"Our tactical flexibility has to improve in 2020. When we go out to take on Limerick, even in the National League and in the Munster Championship, we'll have a certain way of trying to play them. Same with Clare, same with Cork and same with Waterford. So all teams provide an equal threat, and we have to put our best foot forward every day we go out. It's going to be important on how we develop tactically over the next few months."
In the previous 12 months, the older guard led the charge on their run through the championship. However, credit in the bank will count for little in the new year, with young talent breaking through following All-Ireland titles at U21 and U20 grades in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
"We had 12 U21s on our panel last year, a lot of them found the intensity of intercounty senior training a bit much for the first few months, but they came good towards the end of the year," said Egan.
"The impact of our bench did improve in the semi-final and the final, but we need greater improvement from our lesser established players over the course of the 2020 National League.
"Our panel is completely under review. We still have the same panel as we had in 2019. Obviously James Barry and Donagh Maher retired. We'll be looking to review the panel over the next few weeks. We won't be finalising our panel until maybe late January, early February. We'll be looking at various guys."
