It's Jumeirah instead of Tipperary for Peter Acheson
The outgoing Premier County captain scored 1-2 for the Liam Kearns-managed 2016 All-Stars in Abu Dhabi’s Zayed Sports City as they ran out handsome winners over the 2015 team (14-11 to 10-11). Acheson, 26, had the opportunity to play alongside former team-mates Robbie Kiely, Michael Quinlivan and Conor Sweeney but he admitted he is unlikely to link up with them in 2017 having emigrated with his girlfriend.
Now working in business development for an oil and gas company in the United Arab Emirates city and playing with Jumeirah Gaels, Acheson said: “We have a contract signed for a year with the house and stuff. I can’t see myself going home in the next two years. It’s hard to put into words, it’s a great place out here. So, unless something goes wrong, I’d say we will be here for a couple of years anyway.”
Kearns had been hoping to persuade his skipper back but Acheson said: “He’s been on four or five times already. We’ll talk tactics maybe in the new year but look I’m enjoying it out here so I don’t think I’ll go home anytime soon.”
Acheson couldn’t put off the move any longer than he had. “Yeah, for two or three years nearly so it was either come here or be single very quickly,” he laughed. “In fairness, I have a very patient girlfriend, she’s waiting two or three years. We were supposed to come in February this year but then Liam said ‘play the league and then play the championship’. I’m delighted I stayed now. It was the best year we ever had”
The Moyle Rovers man has no fears about Tipperary in his absence. “I think there 17 new faces, seven or eight from previous years who have come back in, and then another ten on top of that. So that’s brilliant. “There is going to be competition for places, which maybe we didn’t have in recent years because people mightn’t have wanted to put in the effort. In fairness it is a lot of commitment. But now that we got to the semi-final everybody wants to be a part of it. Tipp football is on the up.”
C. Kilkenny (3-2); D. Rock (3-0); M. Quinlivan (2-2); C. Sweeney (2-1); P. Acheson (1-2); P. Geaney, M. Donnelly (1-1 each); K. Martin (1-0); P. Harte (0-2).
M. Murphy (3-2); C. McManus (2-3); B. Brogan (1-3); N. Gallagher (1-1); D. Walsh, C. Cavanagh (1-0 each); B. Fenton (1-1); P. McMahon (0-1).
D. Clarke (Mayo); D. Kyne (Galway), R. McHugh (Donegal), R. Kiely (Tipperary), K. Martin (Westmeath); P. Acheson (Tipperary), M. Donnelly (Tyrone); P. Harte (do), M. Quinlivan (Tipperary), C. Sweeney (do); C. Kilkenny (Dublin), P. Geaney (Kerry), D. Rock (Dublin).
J. Cooper (Dublin) for R. McHugh (h-t).
B. Kealy (Kerry); P. McMahon (Dublin), C. McCarron (Tyrone); K. O’Connell (Monaghan), C. O’Sullivan (Kerry), S. Enright (Kerry); B. Fenton (Dublin), C. Cavanagh (Tyrone); D. Walsh (Kerry), N. Gallagher (Donegal), M. Murphy (do); C. McManus (Monaghan), B. Brogan (Dublin).
C. Lane (Cork, first half); M. Deegan (Laois, second half).
