Power blames 'player turnover' for Tipp's freefall

David Power has only three players from the 2020 Munster Final winning team currently in his squad. 

PLAYER TURNOVER: Tipperary Manager David Power says player turnover is the main reason for Tipperary's freefall. Pic: Ray McManus/Sportsfile

David Power is holding court in the Muskerry Suite on the second floor of Páirc Uí Chaoimh. It’s just under two and a half years since he was last here for inter-county duties.

That visit will never leave him, it of course being the afternoon of Tipperary's 2020 famine-ending Munster football final win.

After years and years of tillage on hurling-fertile land, a rich harvest was delivered in the 0-17 to 0-14 victory over Cork.

The All-Ireland minor title of 2011. The run to the 2015 All-Ireland U20 final. Even Clonmel Commercials’ breakthrough in Munster that same year. They had all fed up the line to ending the county’s long wait for provincial senior football honours.

But 2020, at an empty Páirc Uí Chaoimh, was not supposed to be the peak and full stop of Tipperary’s football progress. The graph was not supposed to go into the freefall that it has.

“Player turnover,” said Power, by way of explanation.

Retirements. Emigration. Injuries. They’ve all conspired to leave his Tipperary team a shadow of its former self.

“Against Westmeath in this year’s League, we only had three of the Munster final winning team playing. No team, even Dublin, Kerry, could really sustain those losses because you’re missing serious players.” 

Given what they showed themselves capable of achieving when all pieces were present on the chessboard, the change in personnel in such a short space of time and the dramatic change in fortunes this has brought about has been “very, very tough to take”, Power admitted.

“2020 was my first season and I was hoping that we could grow and be challenging in a higher division in the League and maybe challenging again for a Munster Championship, but unfortunately, we’re not in that position.

“Lads have gone travelling, lads are working, there’s been retirements. Brian Fox, Philip Austin, they’ve all been savage leaders, and to lose all of them on top of the fellas that are not available to us at the minute, it’s very, very hard to take.” 

Relegation to Division 4 and the fact that All-Ireland champions Kerry await the winners of Sunday’s Munster quarter-final between themselves and Waterford has Power already planning for another summer in the Tailteann Cup.

To climb back up the ladder, all involved in Tipperary football need to get back out preparing the land once again.

“The underage in the county, we have to start looking at the U13 sides and getting our best coaches involved, and that’s coaching the coaches as well. Also at secondary school level, we’ve a couple of schools there that probably need help.

“There needs to be more work done and this is no one’s fault. We had a golden generation of footballers but now we have to roll our sleeves back up again and start the work, and it’ll take another 10 years. That’s the reality of it. We’re bringing through lads at the minute that are not used to winning and that’s quite evident now when you see the League matches.”