By Irishexaminer.com John Fogarty
鈥淭he public perception of Liam is that he flogs his teams and, look, let the public think what they like, we just have to worry about what we do,鈥 said Laffan at Tipperary鈥檚 All-Ireland semi-final press event on Monday evening.
鈥淲e probably didn’t get it right last year, we probably tapered it back a little bit too much and maybe suffered in the latter end of the game where teams just pulled away from us and we just hadn’t it in the lungs to stay with them.
鈥淪o, look, it’s a fine balance getting it right and it’s even the same coming into big games like this, match-week, how you tailor training during the week that you don’t end up flat? Do you do an hour, do you do 40 minutes?
鈥淓verything has to be tailored properly and that’s where your S&C guys have come in and laid down the law and make sure that things are done right and that we don’t overcook lads.鈥
Laffan reported a largely clean bill of health for Tipperary ahead of Sunday鈥檚 clash with Kilkenny. 鈥淲e’re looking good at the minute, I don’t think there’s the usual bangs and bruises for this time of the season, but in general I think we have a healthy squad to pick from, so we’ll just have to try and get it right now, I suppose.鈥
Loughmore-Castleiney man Laffan believes the two-week run-in from the All-Ireland quarter-final win over Galway is suitable. 鈥淲e had the long break after the Munster championship which was, I’m not going to say it was difficult, but it took a bit of managing to get right. And then obviously we had Laois and in a way it was probably the ideal game to set us up for that Galway match.
鈥淭he two-week break after Galway, I would think it鈥檚 ideal, it’s given us ample time to process that and get ready for the next one and go about our business and do whatever analysis we have to do. I think it’s worked well for us and look, if we win we’ll say we have it right and if we don’t, somebody will find fault. There鈥檚 not much we can do about that though.鈥
Tipperary will have former Kilkenny goalkeeper David Herity in their ranks on Sunday as coaching support. 鈥淒avid is an excellent coach and has brought huge contributions this year to what we鈥檝e been trying to do,鈥 said Laffan.
鈥淗e will probably have a bit of inside knowledge. Whether it will benefit us or not, we won鈥檛 know until the game plays out. He鈥檚 all-in. You don鈥檛 give eight or nine months with a team unless you鈥檙e fully committed.鈥