'We're well capable of getting back to senior and performing at that level'

Tipperary’s Lucy Spillane is confident they can bounce back from relegation this year.

BOUNCE BACK: Lucy Spillane reckons Tipperary have the talent and the experience to return to Ladies Football's top tier in 2027. Pic: Seb Daly/Sportsfile

Despite the disappointment of suffering relegation from the TG4 All-Ireland SFC this year, Lucy Spillane is confident Tipperary can achieve an automatic return to the top-tier of ladies football in 2027.

After losing out to provincial rivals Kerry and Kildare in the group stages of the Brendan Martin Cup, the Premier County found themselves facing into the All-Ireland SFC relegation play-offs. Following a four-point reversal to Tyrone at St Loman’s, Mullingar in July, Tipperary saw their seven-year stint in the competition coming to an end in the wake of a 0-15 to 1-8 loss at the hands of Waterford in Mallow seven days later.

While this was the fourth time in six seasons Tipp had been in a fight for survival, 2025 had seen them reaching the quarter-final stage of the All-Ireland senior championship. Given how recently they made the last-eight of the Brendan Martin Cup, Spillane is optimistic her native county has what it takes to bounce back from a frustrating campaign.

“We’ll definitely be pushing to get back up from intermediate. We are capable of it, although we did get relegated this year. It was a sad end to the year to go down,” Spillane remarked.

“We’ll try our best, we’re well capable of getting back up senior and performing at that level. We’ll just have to do it in intermediate now next year and then push on again.” 

This won’t necessarily be new territory for Spillane as she previously featured at right corner-back (while still togging out for the Premier’s minor team) when Tipperary were relegated to the All-Ireland intermediate football championship with a narrow defeat to Cavan in 2018.

Yet as frustrating as this was, 2019 proved to be a memorable year for Spillane and the Munster outfit. Courtesy of a series of strong performances, Tipperary reached their second All-Ireland IFC decider in the space of three years and the Fethard defender was on hand to play a key role.

Once again donning the number two jersey, Spillane lined up in Croke Park on September 15, 2019 as the Premier took on Meath in a second-tier showpiece on a day when 56,114 spectators passed through the turnstiles on the biggest day in the LGFA calendar. Even though their Royal County opponents had several players who would go on to win back-to-back All-Ireland senior titles in 2021 and 2022, Tipp came out on the right side of 2-16 to 1-14 final scoreline.

“It was a great day. Everybody would have been on a low in 2018 after going down, getting relegated and everything. Then to go up the next year and win the intermediate again and go back up senior was great,” Spillane recalled of that intermediate final in 2019.

“It was an unreal experience. I was quite young at the time and I just remember hearing all the crowd in Croke Park and everything. Even playing in Croke Park, it was always a dream. It was unbelievable.

“2018 was my first year involved with the team. That was a big jump, but I got great experience since and played with some great players. Had some great coaches along the way, which really helped me.” 

In the years which followed that All-Ireland triumph with Tipperary, Spillane has also enjoyed club success in the colours of Fethard. In October 2022, she played a captain’s role from midfield as Fethard emerged victorious against Brian Borus in their first-ever appearance in the Camida Tipperary Senior ‘A’ Football Championship final.

Determined to ensure this wasn’t a once-off, Fethard returned in 2023 to retain their senior county title with another decider triumph at the expense of Brian Borus. This suddenly saw the blue and white establishing themselves as one of the teams to beat in the Premier County and while they weren’t able to add to their championship collection in 2024 and 2025, they did make it all the way to the final in both years.

Last weekend saw Fethard coming up short in agonising fashion to Cahir at the semi-final stage of the Tipperary SFC but it has nevertheless been an eventful past few years for the club. Given she also held such a key leadership position, that breakthrough victory in 2022 remains a vivid memory for Spillane.

“That was our first senior county final and it was a great day for the club and everyone involved. Being captain, it does make it that little bit more special. It was a great day for everyone.” 

Whether she has been playing for Tipperary or Fethard in recent times, it has usually been a family affair for Spillane. When she helped Fethard to win those county titles in 2022 and 2023, Lucy was joined on the starting line-up by her sisters Heather, Emily and Nell.

All four of this quartet were also part of the Tipperary senior panel in 2025 and even though Emily and Nell subsequently stepped away, Lucy and Heather were still part of the set-up for the inter-county season just gone.

It comes as little surprise that the Spillane sisters are so heavily invested in Fethard as their father Micheál has held a number of roles within the club and still has a pivotal part to play behind the scenes to this day.

“He has been involved with us. He has probably been involved with me since I was U8s or U6s. I’ve had him most of the years up underage and so did a lot of the girls. He has been coaching lots of teams. We’re well used to him now. He was with us again this year with the Fethard senior ladies. He has been with us a good while now,” Spillane added.

“There’s myself and my three sisters playing for the last few years. It’s grand now for us. It’s nice to play with your sisters. You’d be so used to them and everything, it’s grand.

“This year it was myself and Heather in [with Tipperary], but last year Heather, Nell and Emily and myself were all involved. It’s nice. We’d be sick of each other by the end of it, but it was nice playing with them, with club and with Tipperary.”