Swimming against the tide nothing new for Tipperary football

When Tipp reached the All-Ireland semi-final in 2020, the wheel was already turning against football in the county.

TIPPERARY FOOTBALL: Waterford's Tom O'Connell in action against Tipperary players, from left, Jimmy Feehan, Tadhg Condon, and Paudie Feehan. Pic: Michael P Ryan/Sportsfile

Liam Kearns, God rest him, was a small bit disillusioned at the beginning of 2016, not long after he’d been appointed the new Tipperary senior football manager.

On paper, the job was as attractive as they came. Tipperary football had undeniable potential. Between minor and under-21, they played in 14 Munster finals in the ten years between 2006 and 2015. Seven minor finals and seven under-21 finals.

The new breed didn’t fear the Cork or the Kerry jersey, and they won two of each in that timeframe.

Famously, the 2011 minors beat Dublin to win the All-Ireland title and perhaps infamously, the 2015 under-21s were beaten by Tyrone by a point in another national decider.

When it became vacant after the departure of Peter Creedon, the senior job was inevitably very highly sought after.

Men like Cian O’Neill and Paul Curran were all in the running, amongst others, but in the end, Kearns made a pitch to the Tipperary county board that they simply could not refuse.

“From the presentation he made to us, it seemed that there wasn’t a player in Tipperary he did not know about,” recalls Joe Hannigan, then chairman of the Tipperary football board. “All the research he had done, it was second to none.” 

Six months into the job, Kearns would be forgiven for thinking that this wasn’t exactly what he signed up for.

Five of the Tipp’s best players stepped away before the League, with Seamus Kennedy and Stephen O’Brien both going to the hurlers as Colin O’Riordan went to the AFL.

Their talisman Barry Grogan didn’t commit nor did Paddy Codd, their captain of the last three years.

Tipp only staved off relegation to Division 4 on the final day of the National League and, in the build-up to their Munster Championship opener against Waterford, it emerged that Liam Casey, Kevin Fahey and Jason Lonergan - three of their best young players - were all going on J1s for the summer.

Kearns was livid.

Tipp had to battle hard to beat Waterford in the first round in Munster. But despite all that, they went on to beat Cork, Derry and Galway in the championship, in a run that brought them to their first All-Ireland senior football semi-final since 1935.

They got an early black card, a red card and conceded a deflected goal that day but despite all that, they only lost to Mayo by five points.

Then Mayo brought Dublin to a replay in one of the greatest All-Ireland senior football finals ever.

Tipperary should have been poised to kick on but according to Joe Hannigan, the wheel was already turning against football in the county.

*** 

2015 was a successful year for underage GAA in Tipperary in the sense that both their minor hurlers and footballers made it to All-Ireland finals.

Five dual players started on both teams but, when they lost the two finals, some people blamed dual commitments. By 2016, dual players were banned in Tipperary at minor level.

To this day, as is the way in many counties admittedly, players choose between hurling and football at 15.

“That was a bit of a disaster,” says Hannigan, whose son George was an ever-present on the Tipperary senior football team throughout the decade.

“At least if you had a lad up to minor level, the base would be there.

“If a lad went off hurling, he could always come back to the football if it didn’t work out. But when they’re only playing up until 15, it’s not enough.”

The elimination of the dual player was self-inflicted for ‘16 and ‘17 but by ‘18, with the introduction of underage round-robins, it became the way of the world across the board.

Dual playing is now an impossibility and the results don’t lie about the impact it had on Tipperary football.

From ‘16 to ‘20, the Tipp Under-20s never won a game. The minors only won three games.

But the county’s Munster senior and All-Ireland minor winning manager David Power feels the dual issue can still be teased out. 

“I personally think there has to be a total review on that. If the lads are picking hurling, and they’re getting game-time, you know 1-20 with the hurlers, I’ve no problem.

“But where I have a problem is, if you’ve a very good footballer, but he’s 22 or 23 on the hurling, getting no game-time. How come he can’t play football?

“The mindset of the players has to change too, that they would prefer to be playing football than to be an unused sub for the hurling, but that can only change from the top.

“At the end of the day, Tipperary is a hurling county. As a Tipperary football man, I’ve absolutely no problem with that.

“The way I would look at it is we should be trying to get the best possible teams out at all grades. With a bit of communication and organisation, that could be done. And if we work together, I think we can have a better county for it.” 

Tipp are at the bottom of the mountain once again. They had a poor Division 4. They lost to Waterford in Munster. Their famous provincial victory in 2020 seems so long ago, with just eight of the players who featured on the panel now.

But they’ll hope to turn it around, starting in Antrim in the Tailteann Cup this weekend. And both Power and Hannigan are hopeful that they can.

“The people that are there are interested and they’re good people,” says Hannigan.

“You’re swimming against the tide all the time, but people know that. That’s always been the way.” 

The under-20s won three games this year. So did the minors. The tide isn’t fully out yet.