RTÉ hurling analyst Shane McGrath stressed that Tipperary wouldn't be "gone for too long" and that their 2025 All-Ireland victory was no fluke following the early end to their title defence last weekend.
Tipp's latest tilt at the elusive back-to-back never got airborne and they departed the championship with barely a whimper, losing to Clare by 11 points in Thurles, the fourth time in a row they had been beaten at home to the Banner in the Munster championship.
Ahead of the championship, Donal Óg Cusack had generated headlines by warning that "no one rises and falls as fast as Tipp" and referenced again their failure to win back-to-back All-Ireland titles since 1965.
After the loss to Clare, Liam Cahill lamented that so many of his players had lost form, noting pointedly: "Unfortunately, this particular group have a history of doing this. When we start hurling in fear, we're a really moderate team. It’s just a real Jekyll and Hyde performance versus last year."
Reflecting in the wake of the championship exit, McGrath insists that the current crop have credit in the bank and insists that Tipperary hurling is still in a healthy position overall.
"We'd such a year last year with the group - winning that All-Ireland," McGrath said on the RTÉ GAA podcast.
"Which was a tough All-Ireland to win. It wasn't just a fluke of an All-Ireland.
"Drawing with Limerick, beating Clare, having to go and beat Galway, Kilkenny, Cork. It was a tough All-Ireland. They earned that All-Ireland last year.
"The back-to-back thing? I think there's a lot of counties that would bite our hands off for the way we go about winning All-Irelands.
"The last 10 years, we've three All-Irelands. Limerick are probably the greatest hurling team of all time ever and they're the only team that have won more All-Irelands than Tipp in the last 10 years.
"It [the back-to-back] is hard to do. And we see that first hand. When you see the teams that do it, you have to take your hat off and say, 'what a group, like!' No matter what the sport is.
"The two teams that have done it in my hurling time are Kilkenny and Limerick and fair play to them.
"But we're still tipping away every few years. My understanding is that we're the only team that has won an All-Ireland every decade since the foundation of the GAA.
"We won't be gone too long. We're in the minor All-Ireland semi-final. We lost in a penalty shootout to Clare in the Under-20s. The schools are going alright. There'll always be good hurlers in Tipp and we'll always be there or thereabouts."
Nonetheless, McGrath wasn't inclined to sugarcoat the limp nature of Tipp's performance, admitting it was one of the worst from the county.
He said: "We were coming away from it, saying 'what happened there?'
"There was no energy, there was no drive. Obviously, Willie [Connors] getting sent off didn't help things.
"The other day was up there with one of the worst performances we've given as a county in a long time. I can't put my finger on it.
"Before the game there was a great atmosphere. There was a right buzz around Thurles. After that, there was one team that played and it was Clare.
"Clare went after our big guns that did a bit of damage against them last year in Ennis.
"John Conlon was up around 26 or 27 possessions. Adam Hogan just seemed to thrive the other day, it was his best game I've seen him play for a long time.
"David McInerney held John McGrath to five possessions. John McGrath didn't score from play and he was immense for us last year in Ennis.
"Every time Andrew Ormond got the ball, there was just three or four [players around him]. You hear Paul Kinnerk shouting 'swarm, swarm' in the Limerick league games and it was the exact same [from Clare] the other day.
"Clare were epitomised by their workrate. They got 1-15 from turnovers."
Watch a provincial hurling double-header, Dublin v Kilkenny (2pm) and Cork v Clare (4pm), on Sunday from 1.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow our live blog on RTÉ.ie/sport and RTÉ News app and listen to Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
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