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Whatever else happens, the summer of 2016 will be remembered for the exploits of the Tipperary football team. An unlikely success story? Not at all. Things like Tipperary GAA’s advance through the championship this summer rarely happen by chance. The evidence was there for those that chose to look at it. We did.
“Tipperary footballers. A team no-one will fancy drawing in the qualifiers.”
This is what we stated earlier in the year:
"Tipperary. The footballers from Tipp are a genuine problem for any team they encounter this year. U21 success, married with the progress of Clonmel Commercials who should really have contested the All Ireland Club Final, has given football a shot in the arm. Will be disappointed they didn’t progress in the league but under Liam Kearns and with a slew of good, young players, there is the knowhow that’s needed to challenge Cork and Kerry. On their day they can put it up to anyone. Tricky qualifier test for anyone”
Thus spake our championship prediction earlier in the season. We didn’t call Tipp getting to the All Ireland football semi, because let’s face it, if the crystal ball gazing was that good, we’d be away to sunnier climes with our takings from the bookies. Cleaned out they’d be. Still…
A rational dispassionate assessment of Tipperary’s advance in football in recent years shows success at underage level, appearances at Croke Park, Clonmel’s Munster Club Championship. These things all conspire to indicate that here is a county that is going places. While their hurlers sit at the top table as perennial swashbucklers, the footballers with their loyal band of supporters have come up on the rails to prove their championship mettle.
The evidence is that with the right structures and support in place, the Tipperary senior team has thrived on the backs of several groups of players coming through. Sound familiar? This is what the likes of Dublin GAA and Tyrone GAA aim to achieve with sustained investment in underage development.
The league performance this spring suggested that Tipp’s forward momentum had stalled with only two wins from seven games. But as manager Liam Kearns pointed out, whilst they won only two games, they drew three games. That showed they were made of doughty stuff. Plus for most of the campaign they were minus the Clonmel Commercials players. That casts a different light.
Ah yes. The Commercials. The 29th of November. Cast your mind back to that day. Rain lashing on the lens of the TG4 camera eye. Anyone dozing their way through their Sunday afternoon was abruptly woken with a spirited performance by the Commercials men in the Munster Final, culminating in a late winner for Michael Quinlivan. They were good money for the win over Munster kingpins Nemo. Roll on the All Ireland semi final against Ballyboden. In truth it should really have all ended in Glory with a trip to Croke Park as the Clonmel men led 14-men Ballyboden by three with five to play, before they were reeled in and dispatched in extra time. They’ll know what to do the next time.
The Kerry football missionary must have felt a strong sense of satisfaction on Sunday, to watch his adopted county break the turf ceiling at Croker. Evans was the man who guided Tipp from Division 4 to Division 2 of the Allianz football league in successive seasons. He led their u21 footballers to their first ever Munster title in 2010. He was a key coach in the 2011 All Ireland minor win. But it was the structures and longer term planning that Evans helped put in place, along with a group of solid Tipp football men, that are starting to bear fruit. Unfortunately, Evans ultimately was lost to Tipp but the strength of their systems by the fact the upward trajectory continues despite the loss of a key man.
From 2002 to 2009 Tipperary played in four Munster minor finals, they made the breakthrough in 2011 and again in 2012 to add to titles won in 1955, 1984 and 1995. The groundwork for this run off success was put in place by Evans. Notably the Commercials team had four members on the 2011 minor panel that won the All Ireland.
You cannot pitch up to four successive Munster u21 finals, 2007-2010 winning at the fourth time of asking, without doing something right. To repeat the trick (almost) in 2013, ’14 and ’15, this time winning at the third time of asking reinforces the good work being done. Again this is feeding off the underage structures and development agenda.
Current manager Liam Kearns is no stranger to developing so called weaker counties either. Another Kerry native, he managed Limerick’s under 21s to successive Munster titles and to an All-Ireland Under-21 Football Championship final appearance where the lost to a Tyrone team featuring Cormac McAnallen, Brian McGuigan, Stevie O’Neill and those other men. In 2003 he led Limerick to a Division 2 National Football League final and the following year Kearns managed the Limerick GAA senior team that reached the Munster Senior Football Championship final which they lost on a replay to Kerry. In 2010 Kearns coached Aherlow to the Tipperary Senior Football Championship. Now, he is the man that has led Tipp to the unlikeliest of All Ireland semi finals. He knows the territory.
If this were a court of law, the evidence is there and the case is proven. It is no surprise that Tipperary have reached this point. The next question, is can they go one step further? The Tipperary footballers have to think they can and will.