Liam Kearns hopes to push the Tipperary footballers to new heights

Liam Kearns has been here before, on the cusp of a Munster football championship breakthrough with a team of talented young players who dream of breaking up the Cork/Kerry cartel.

The specifics are a little different, according to Kearns, who argues when he took over as manager of Limerick in the early 2000s, “they were in a worse place to where Tipp are now” but accepts the general comparison.

In both instances, the long-term challenge is the same, to break up the monopoly exerted by Munster’s big two and usher in a new era for football in both the county and the province.