Laois suffer a Premier Pounding.
By Noel Dundon
As we sloshed our way through the puddled wasteland of O’Moore Park on Saturday, soaked to the bone from biblical downpours, one thought reigned supreme—what a total, soul-sapping waste of time this Laois game was.
Laois looked like they’d rather be anywhere else after their McDonagh Cup heartbreak. Tipperary didn’t need to be there, and clearly would’ve preferred a day off. Kildare, too, still licking their wounds from a drubbing by Dublin, saw their recent silverware lose its sheen in similarly pointless fashion. So really, what’s the point of these end-of-season add-ons? Isn’t winning the McDonagh Cup and sealing promotion to the 2026 championship enough? Do we need to tack on these lifeless, post-script fixtures to an already packed calendar? The results—and the sheer apathy on display—speak for themselves.
For Tipp, the only real win was walking off that saturated pitch with bodies intact and no physio queue stretching to Thurles. At best, a few peripheral figures got a sniff of championship air—though truthfully, the occasion had none of the bite or heat of real summer hurling. The hammering rain, followed by clammy, suffocating heat, created a bizarre atmosphere, but the real weirdness was how far removed the afternoon felt from any notion of a championship clash. There have been tougher, more searching sessions in the confines of Coolmore Dr Morris Park and FBD Semple. This against Laois ? More like a glorified training match in front of a pretty sizeable and vocal Tipperary following.
Next weekend, however, promises something entirely different. Galway are looming—and they’re no strangers to producing one big, season-defining performance. And more often than not, it’s Tipperary on the receiving end. Flashback to the last time these sides met: Tipp were flying high after pulverising Offaly, only to stumble into Galway flat-footed, drained, and dumped out of the championship with barely a whisper. That collapse will still sting, and Liam Cahill’s backroom team will have dissected every angle—what failed, why it happened, and how to flip the script so that it doesn’t happen again.
Get that part right, and Tipp are riding the bus to Croke Park for a semi-final showdown with Cork. Get it wrong, and it’s another long, bitter off-season.
And yet, for all the meaninglessness of Saturday’s outing, there were green shoots. Tipp notched twelve different scorers, kept a clean sheet, and saw their full-forward line rack up a tasty 2-17. Joe Caesar made a sharp return from injury; Willie Connors brought energy and intelligence; Bryan O’Mara looked settled and solid at full-back; and Rhys Shelly continues to blossom between the posts. Momentum is building. The trick now is to light the fire early next weekend, to roar from the throw-in, and to show Galway that this Tipp side has steel behind the style, and guile to achieve their goal.
Galway haven’t unleashed their full fury yet this year—but when they do, they usually aim it at us. Tipp must be braced to meet fire with fire, to claw, scrap, ruck, and pounce. The chances will come—it’s about grabbing them with both hands, refusing to blink, and making sure the next Premier bus ride is headed for Jones’ Road on All-Ireland semi-final day.
Casement crux a real headache for the GAA.
Despite the £50m pledged to the redevelopment of Casement Park in Belfast from the UK government’s Spending Review, the shortfall is still in the region of €90m – a very sizeable chunk of change to refurbish a derelict site. At a total estimated cost of almost €300 million, would a greenfield site not be a better option in Belfast? Another Pairc Uí Chaoimh scenario is exactly what we don’t need, or want.