+ Tipperary county hurling team 2016 seasonManagerMichael RyanCaptainBrendan MaherAll-Ireland SHCWinnersMunster SHCWinnersNational LeagueQuarter-finalistsTop scorer ChampionshipSéamus Callanan (2-47)Highest SHC attendance 82,016 (v Kilkenny 4 September)Lowest SHC attendance25,531 (v Limerick 19 June)
The 2016 season was Michael Ryan's first year as manager of the Tipperary senior hurling team.
In October 2014, it had been confirmed that assistant manager Michael Ryan would succeed Eamon O'Shea as the Tipperary manager after the conclusion of the 2015 season. In November 2015, it was confirmed that Ryan would be assisted by former Tipperary player's John Madden as a selector and Declan Fanning as a coach in 2016. 1995 All-Ireland Under-21 Hurling Championship winning captain Brian Horgan was added to the backroom team on 20 November. In January, Conor Stakelum was also added to the management team as a selector. Denis Leamy was also added to the back-room team in July.
Brendan Maher was confirmed as captain for 2016 in December 2015 with Pádraic Maher retaining the role of vice-captain.
Intersport/Elverys continued as sponsors of Tipperary GAA for the second year. The Tipperary jersey for the 2016 season was the same as was used in 2015 and displayed the Intersport brand name on the front and their co-sponsor Elvery's name on the back.
Tipperary chose not to compete in the new Munster Senior Hurling League which began on 3 January and instead choose to arrange challenge games before the start of the National League in February. Tipperary began their season at the JK Brackens pitch in Templemore on 10 January where they defeated Offaly in a challenge match.
Tipperary went on to win their 27th All-Ireland title and first time since 2010, defeating Kilkenny in the final, 2–29 to 2–20.
2016 senior hurling management team
NamePositionClubMichael RyanManagerUpperchurch-DrombaneDeclan FanningCoachKillenauleJohn MaddenSelectorLorrha-DorrhaBrian HorganSelectorKnockavilla-Donaskeigh KickhamsConor StakelumSelectorBorris-Ileigh
2016 squad
The following players made their competitive senior debut in 2016. Daire Quinn against Dublin on 13 February. Dan McCormack against Dublin on 13 February. Dylan Fitzell against Dublin on 13 February. Joe Gallagher against Dublin on 13 February. John Meagher against Dublin on 13 February. Andrew Coffey against Kilkenny 21 February. Barry Heffernan against Waterford on 6 March. Kieran Morris against Cork on 20 March. Willie Ryan against Cork on 20 March. Darragh Mooney against Clare on 3 April. Steven O'Brien against Clare on 3 April. Séamus Kennedy against Cork on 22 May. Aidan McCormack against Waterford on 10 July.
A panel of 26 players for the opening National Hurling League game against Dublin in Semple Stadium on 13 February was announced on 11 February and will be reviewed before each Hurling League game. Ahead of that announcement, the county confirmed on 10 February that "Seamus Callanan will be out for a further couple of weeks, Conor O’Brien will be out for 3 weeks, Kieran Bergin will also be out for 2 weeks while new panelist Sean Curran has suffered a medial ligament injury which will result in Sean missing the entire League."
The first panel announced for the Dublin game was as follows, Darren Gleeson, Cathal Barrett, Tomás Hamill, Michael Cahill, Brendan Maher, James Barry, Padraic Maher, Michael Breen, Daire Quinn, Dan McCormack, Patrick Maher, Jason Forde, Noel McGrath, Conor Kenny, John McGrath, Darragh Mooney, Ronan Maher, Willie Ryan, Liam Ryan, John Meagher, Joe Gallagher, Adrian Ryan, Dylan Fitzelle, Sean Ryan, Andrew Coffey, and John O’Dwyer.
Challenge Games On 11 January, Tipperary defeated Offaly by 2–17 to 1–15 in a Senior Hurling Challenge game played in Templemore, their first match of the year. Tipperary won the game on a 2–17 to 1-15 scoreline. On 17 January, Tipperary played a Thurles CBS All Star selection in Drom-Inch to mark 200 years of Thurles CBS.
National Hurling League
Summary Tipperary started their league campaign on 13 February against Dublin at Semple Stadium. Tipperary won the game by 14 points in Michael Ryan's first competitive game in charge of the team. Jason Forde scored a goal 13th-minute goal, breaking onto loose ball before firing a low strike past the goalkeeper as Tipperary had a 1–09 to 0–03 lead at half-time in freezing conditions, despite registering 10 wides in the first half. The game was shown live on Setanta Sports. Daire Quinn and Dan McCormack made their competitive debuts in the game.
Tipperary played Kilkenny on 21 February at Nowlan Park, in a game which was shown live on TG4. The starting XV was unchanged from the opening game against Dublin. Two late goals from forward Kevin Kelly in the 67th and 72nd minutes handed Kilkenny a five-point victory in the game. Tipperary never trained in the game until three minutes from time when Kelly got his first goal to put Kilkenny into a 1–15 to 0–16 lead. Tipperary have only beaten Kilkenny twice now in 11 games now since the 2010 All-Ireland final victory.
Two weeks later on 6 March, Tipperary played Waterford at Semple Stadium, in a game which was shown deferred on TG4. There was three changes to his side Séamus Callanan returning, while Barry Heffernan from Nenagh Éire Óg made his league debut at right half back and Ronan Maher marking his first full start of the campaign at centre back. Seamus Callanan was a late withdrawal from the team with a hamstring strain. Austin Gleeson scored an injury-time free for Waterford as they won the game by one point, condemning Tipperary to a second late loss in as many games. Tipperary looked to have snatched a win in the 68th minute when John McGrath scored with a low shot to the far corner of the net, but late frees from Curran and Gleeson sealed a one-point victory for Waterford.
On 13 March, Tipperary traveled to Pearse Stadium in Galway in round 4 of the league. The match was shown live on TG4. There were three changes to the side that lined out the previous week against Waterford, with Kieran Bergin and Adrian Ryan getting their first starts in the 2016 league, with Bergin lining out at centre forward having returned to action as a substitute last week and Ryan starting at right corner forward. The other change saw Niall O’Meara starting at top of the left. Joe Canning scored with a late sideline cut before John O’Dwyer levelled the game for Tipperary with the final puck of the game. The game finished 1–22 to Tipperary and 2–19 to Galway, Tipperary had a 1–10 to 1–09 lead at half-time.
Relegation worries were still there for Tipperary after this game but a quarter-final was confirmed after beating Cork by 2–27 to 2–15 in the final divisional game on 20 March at Semple Stadium. Tipperary had a 13-point superior scoring difference to Galway going into the final day. The match was shown deferred on TG4 and Tipperary had a 0–13 to 0–10 at lead at half-time. Niall O'Meara scored the game's opening goal with 20 minutes, shooting low to the net with Michael Breen getting the second when he hammered it to the net from the right. Seamus Callanan returned for his first league game of the year when he came on as a half-time substitute, and went on to score two points. The squad will have a training camp at Breaffy House on Easter weekend. Following the training camp over Easter, six players were cut from the panel, Conor Kenny, Joe O’Dwyer, Kieran Morris, Joe Gallagher, Bill Maher and Sean Ryan.
Tipperary went on to play Clare in the Quarter-Final's on Sunday 3 April at 3:45pm in Cusack Park in Ennis. A coin toss saw Clare get the home advantage for this game. The game was shown live on TG4 and Clare won it on a 2–13 to 0–18 scoreline. A 67th-minute goal by substitute Aaron Shanagher sealed a Semi-final date with Kilkenny for Clare. Tipperary had a three-point lead in the 62nd minute but found themselves behind five minutes later when Shanagher got his goal. Clare had a half-time lead of 1–7 to 0–8. The defeat to Clare was the seventh time in five years that they lost a game by a point. It was also their second one-point defeat in 2016.
2016 Munster Senior Hurling Championship Munster Quarter-final Tipperary were drawn to take on Cork on 22 May at Semple Stadium in the Munster Quarter-final. The winners of the game would play Limerick in the Munster Semi-final on 19 June.
The match was shown live on RTÉ One as part of the Sunday Game live, presented by Michael Lyster with analysis by Ger Loughnane and Henry Shefflin. Commentary on the game was provided by Ger Canning alongside Michael Duignan.
Four players were picked to make their Championship debuts in the game, Séamus Kennedy at half-back, Sean Curran, Dan McCormack, and John McGrath. In very rainy conditions, Tipperary had a nine-point lead at half-time and went on to win the game by nine points, they also went 17 minutes without scoring in the second half. Hawk-Eye was used for the first time at Semple Stadium, and judged three efforts wide during the game. Watched by a 29,114 crowd, Tipperary had too much for a disappointing Cork at a rain-drenched Semple Stadium. Tipperary playing against Cork's sweeper William Egan choose to split balls to the sidelines for their full-forward to chase with Cork short of support in the forwards.
Pádraic Maher was named by RTE as the man of the match.
Munster Semi-final Tipperary went on to play Limerick in the Munster Semi-final on 19 June at Semple Stadium. The counties had met 67 times in the championship, 65 in Munster, once in the All-Ireland semi-final in 2009 and once in the All-Ireland qualifiers in 2004, with Tipperary having 34 wins, Limerick 23 wins and 10 draws. The winners would play Waterford in the Munster final on 10 July. It was the fifth year in a row that Tipperary and Limerick would play each other in the Munster hurling championship.
Tipperary made one change to the starting team with Patrick Maher returning in place of Seán Curran. The match was shown live on RTÉ One as part of the Sunday Game live, presented by Michael Lyster with analysis by Ger Loughnane and Henry Shefflin. Commentary on the game was provided by Ger Canning alongside Dónal O'Grady. In rainy and wet conditions, Tipperary had a three-point lead at half-time (3-5 to 0–11) and went on to win the game by two points. John 'Bubbles' O'Dwyer was shown a straight red card in the fourteenth minute for striking the hurl at Richie English. By that time Tipperary had already scored two goals, both coming from Michael Breen, the first after he followed up on his initial run and pass, striking the ball low one handed to the net, the second when he reacted quickly flicking the ball into the net after he followed up on a shot which was saved from Séamus Callanan by the goalkeeper. The third goal for Tipperary came when Séamus Callanan hit the ball low to the left of the net after a hand-pass from Noel McGrath on the left. Tom Morrissey got a late goal for Limerick when he smashed the ball past Darren Gleeson to bring the gap down to two points at the end.
Cathal Barrett was announced as the man-of-the-match on the Sunday Game that evening, the other nominees were Noel McGrath and Limerick forward Cian Lynch.
Munster Final Tipperary went on to play Waterford in the Munster Final on 10 July at the Gaelic Grounds. Tipperary went into the match without the suspended John O'Dwyer who received a one match ban for his sending off in the Limerick match. This was the 11th Munster final meeting between the counties with Tipperary leading 8–2. The winners would qualify for the All-Ireland semi-final on 14 August, while the losers meet a qualifier winner in the All-Ireland quarter-final on 24 July. Tipperary named their team on Friday 8 July, the only change being Niall O'Meara joining the full-forward line in place of John 'Bubbles' O'Dwyer.