Senan Butler: 'No matter how good you go in the U20 Championship, you’ve to build on it with your club at senior level'

DRIVING PLAYERS ON: Players in with the senior team have an impact on the U20 team. Pic: Tyler Miller/Sportsfile

Senan Butler has hailed the impact of the senior players in Tipperary’s U20 panel as they begin the county’s defence of their Munster title on Tuesday evening (7pm).

Darragh McCarthy, Oisín O’Donoghue and Sam O’Farrell were rested for the seniors’ Division 1A win over Clare on Saturday with a mind to lining out for Brendan Cummins’s side against Limerick in Thurles along with fellow senior squad member Conor Martin.

Butler speaks in glowing terms of what those players have added to the set-up. “They bring a great intensity to training, you can see the difference vocally and their calls when someone's coming from behind. They all know different calls, it's brilliant.

“All them lads were brought up (to the seniors) because of their club campaigns, they were all brilliant for their clubs. No matter how good you go in the U20 Championship, you’ve to build on it with your club at senior level. There is a big difference from U20 to senior, you’ve to build on your performances there.” 

Butler speaks of the battle for places in the starting U20 line-up. “The Thurles lads, they won the Croke Cup, all six of them are in with us, they're all brilliant forwards, they haven't been training fully with us because they're in with Thurles. The competition is ridiculous, even Darragh up with the seniors, you can see how good he is now and he needs to come back.” 

Surprise winners of the province last year, Butler accepts there is more expectation of the Tipperary U20s this time around especially when so many are eligible from 12 months ago. “Definitely, we're just going to have the same build-up as last year, we did well enough last year. So, we'll just keep the same routines, build confidence as each game goes by.” 

Known for his direct play and goals in last year’s championship, a recent hamstring tear won’t prevent the Kilsheelan-Kilcash man from being available for this opener, he insists. “It was a grade two there about six weeks ago, got an MRI, kind of a 10cm thin tear, so I'm kind of minding myself. So, I was back to training there Tuesday fully so it's good.” Butler feels the benefits of lining out at adult level for his club the past couple of season. 

“Definitely physically anyway. Some of the games now, they're very physical, they're looking after you, not man-marking you, but hitting you digs. It's good to get used to that physically, definitely the intensity.”