Power looks to a bright future for the Premier
The Tipperary minor boss believes this victory can be the springboard for the county to enjoy greater days ahead.
“We’re after winning a minor All-Ireland and it’s huge,” he said.
“It sends home a message that we can back up all the talk. We’re going to enjoy this for the next couple of weeks but the work only begins now. The launchpad is there for us and hopefully after this team winning, the U21s and senior team will take confidence from the achievement.
“It’s going to help all the super coaches that are coaching U14, U15, U16 and U17 squads. It’ll give them an extra incentive to do it.
“I’m fortunate to lead a great management team and set of players. It’s a whole network. John Evans has been a great help to me. Alan O’Connor my physical coach, my three selectors Pat Murphy, Tadhg Duggan and Fergal McDonnell, and the county football board.”
Power praised the battling qualities of his players who once again persevered until the finish.
“At half-time we were up against it again. Something like the Kerry game if not by quite as much. There is great fighting spirit in this team and they never give up. We kept plugging away and our backs were outstanding. Dublin have some great forwards too like Ciaran Kilkenny and Gavin Ivory. We’re after beating a very good team.”
Tipperary’s self-belief has been key in pulling them through games this year and Power also revealed that some fathers of the Tipperary players were rewarded for the punt they took on their All-Ireland chances earlier in the year.
“A couple of fathers after the Kerry game, I think they got us at 66-1 to win the All-Ireland. It’s brilliant.
“I said the three things I always do at half-time before they go out — win the throw-in, get the first score and win the second half.
“We didn’t win the throw-in but we got the first score and had no choice but to win the second half. Self-belief got us through.”
The contribution of Tipp’s substitutes was invaluable. Power espoused the virtues of his panel all season and that was reflected in the dazzling scoring of Phillip Quirke and Colman Kennedy. Yet the decision of match-winner Kennedy to attempt that late goal took his manager by surprise. “I’ll be honest I was hoping he’d go for the point. If he’d missed it I would have killed him. But he scored a goal like it against Kerry too. It’s all about the panel of 34. I said we’d need five subs and by God we did.”
Meanwhile captain Liam McGrath paid tribute to camaraderie in the Tipp football camp and believed it was key to their success this year.
“The panel is unbelievable, there’s a real family atmosphere there. Everyone knows each other and has the craic together. For myself, it’s just incredible to win a football medal. At home in Loughmore, football would mean more to a lot of people than hurling would. There’s some lads there, the old lads in the club, that would be delighted by that. It’s a great feeling.”
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