Tipp need to find their shooting boots to stay alive in Tailteann Cup

By Shane Brophy

The Tipperary senior footballers are hoping for a miracle if they are to extend their Tailteann Cup campaign beyond this weekend.

A win over Waterford in their final group game might not be enough to progress to the preliminary quarter finals as one of the four third placed teams will not advance to make way for New York to come into the competition, and currently the third placed team in this group is most in jeopardy.

If Tipperary were to record a third competitive win over Waterford this year, the only county they have defeated in 2023 so far in both the McGrath Cup and the Munster quarter final, they will need to do so by a large margin such is their weak score difference of minus 29 following their heavy defeats to Meath and Down.

The likely third placed teams are currently a good twenty points away in terms of score difference with Laois (-9) in group 1 and Longford (+8) & Carlow (-7) in group 3. Tipp’s best hope might be for a Leitrim win over Wexford in group 4 as they are currently on minus 18, but even bridging at least an eleven point gap will be a tough one in itself.

“Realistically we’d have to beat Waterford by up to fifteen points to put ourselves back into a situation where we could qualify,” admitted manager David Power this week.

“We have to go with the mindset of, firstly, winning, and if we can get ourselves in a position to get up the score.

“Whatever happens, even if it is our last game on Saturday, is to finish with a win. That would be very important.”

However, Tipperary’s task of running up a score won’t be an easy one considering they have found finding thr target a big problem throughout the campaign, managing just seventeen points total in their two Tailteann Cup games so far.

“Scoring has been a massive issue,” Power admitted.

“To be honest, it is the first time in 20-25 years that Tipp don’t have a marquee forward, whether it was Declan Browne, Conor Sweeney, Michael Quinlivan, Peter Lambert, we now have a very inexperienced forward line, and it has put us under savage pressure in that we are not getting enough scores.

“We have a lot of young fellas that are still learning the trade, even Sean O’Connor who is in his third year on the squad is still very young (21) and it does take time.

“We have tried so many systems at this stage, but it is very tough going as we are dealing with a lot of new fellas as well, there’ll possibly be another one or two under 20’s on the bench again on Saturday. That is where we are at.

“We aren’t in the fortunate situation where the new young fellas coming into the set-up where the confidence is low because they aren’t used to winning so we are dealing with a lot at the minute.

“It is very tough because I had a completely different mindset in terms of what this season would bring, but it just hasn’t worked out for different reasons, and it is the same for the players as well. None of us wanted what is after happening.”

It has been a miserable season for Tipperary. Already down the likes of Bill Maher (who along with Alan Campbell could benefit from Tipp’s misfortune as current New York players) the loss of captain Conor Sweeney for the season in the first league game against Down is a blow Tipp haven’t recovered from.

From there, vice-captain Steven O’Brien has had an injury hit campaign with hamstring, and now a shoulder injury sustained against Meath which requires surgery and is likely to miss the start of Ballina’s club hurling and football campaigns, the latter at senior level for the first time.

Liam McGrath and Cathal Deely (both ankles) and Tommy Maher (hamstring) will also miss this Saturday’s game, but Mark Russell will be available after limping out of the Down game.