Niall O’Meara has revealed the “crazy” competition for places in Tipperary’s senior hurling panel, writes Jackie Cahill.
Tipp swept to a 21-point victory over Waterford in this afternoon’s Munster final – with O’Meara drafted in to replace suspended John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer from the start.
Now, even a forward of O’Dwyer’s undoubted class faces a battle to regain a starting place ahead for Tipp’s forthcoming All-Ireland semi-final appearance on August 14.
O’Meara worked terrifically hard for the cause – even if he didn’t score – while Jason Forde and Aidan McCormack came off the bench to score points.
The battle for starting spots at Croke Park next month will ramp up over the next five weeks and O’Meara, naturally, is hoping to play a part.
He said: “(For) the last couple of weeks, there has been serious competition for places.
“You have Jason (Forde), missing Bubbles, Seanie Curran is back, it’s crazy. Lads know if you are not putting it in you are going to be whipped off.
“It’s a 20-man effort, as you saw today.
“Waterford used 20 lads as well, the game is just growing and growing with the physicality and speed and luckily we got the break of the ball.”
O’Meara expressed delight with Tipp’s victory – their fifth Munster final win against Waterford in eight seasons.
It was a ruthless display from Michael Ryan’s charges and O’Meara reflected: “We are delighted to have to have won.
“Such a margin we wouldn’t have been expecting but we got the goal chances and we took them.
“In fairness, we worked from the long balls and that’s what changed today, we launched a few long balls in and got the breaks.
“We got the goals from John (McGrath) on the break, who was excellent, absolutely unreal.”
McGrath, 21, helped himself to 3-2 – the first man to score a hat-trick of Munster final goals since Lar Corbett bagged four against Waterford five years ago.
Tipp broke down Waterford’s sweeper system with a direct approach, as runners arrived from deep positions to latch onto killer passes.
O’Meara revealed: “In the first half, playing into the wing with a sweeper, we weren’t trying to contain them but trying to get our scores as well.
“We did well going in two points ahead against a gale force wind – we had a couple of goal chances and took one.
“In the second half then the ball broke for us and we put it in the back of the net and didn’t look back, we just drove on which was brilliant.”
And O’Meara has backed manager Ryan to manage the five-week gap between Munster final and All-Ireland semi-final.
Tipp won Munster last year but lost to Galway by a point and O’Meara admitted: “The five weeks is a long time, we tried our best to get it right last year but were flat on the day so I’d imagine the management will change things and will have a plan for us either tomorrow or Tuesday.”
