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Munster SFC: 'We're expecting to win in Waterford' - Kearns

GAA.ie hears from Tipperary football manager Liam Kearns who reflects on preparations ahead of the Munster Senior Football Championship which begins for the Premier County with a Quarter-Final on Sunday May 29th at 3.30pm away to Waterford in Fraher Field. Tickets for the game are available from selected SuperValu and Centra stores nationwide, as well as from normal matchday outlets for more information, visit http://munster.gaa.ie/

Sunday May 29 

Munster Senior Football Championship Quarter-Final

Waterford v Tipperary, Fraher Field, 3.30pm.

Neither Waterford nor Tipperary have enjoyed an ideal run-in to Sunday’s Munster SFC Quarter-Final.

It’s been well publicised that the Tipperary panel has been has been filleted by injuries and defections, but Waterford have had their own issues too. As key defender Tadhg Ó hUallacháin pointed out at the launch of the Munster Championships, he’d have only two weeks of dedicated preparation for this game because for the previous month he’d be playing club hurling.

“It’s not ideal,” he said  But there’s very little you can do. You would like a fair crack at it. We’re up against it with Tipperary. They gave us a good beating up in Thurles, 17 points, something we never saw coming.

“Look at our performances against Tipp in recent years: beat them three years ago, drew two years ago. To lose by 17 points…a lot went wrong on the day. We’re not that bad a side. So I’m looking forward to really putting it out there, see how good we do.”

Waterford will sense an opportunity to pull off an ambush on Sunday, because the Tipperary team that visits Fraher Field is a very different one to the side that hammered them last year. Of the 21 players who played some part in the Premier County’s victory that day, only 10 remain a part of the panel.

Their best player, Colin O’Riordan, has joined AFL outfit Sydney Swans, and powerful duo Stephen O’Brien and Seamus Kennedy decided to focus on inter-county hurling this year.

"Even Dublin would have their resources stretched with those kind of losses,” said Tipperary manager Liam Kearns this week. “It's a calibre of player too, those three young fellas would have been the mainstays of the team for years to come.”

Ian Ryan

Ian Ryan

O’Brien and Kennedy are not the only two to withdraw their services this year. James Lonergan, Liam Casey, Ross Mulcahy, and Kevin Fahey are spending the summer in the US, Barry Grogan and Sean Flynn made themselves unavailable, Brian Mulvihill is working abroad, and Andrew Morrissey has retired. To make matters even worse, George Hannigan, Kevin O’Halloran and Ger Mulhaire are all injured.

"George has been out with a long-running groin problem, Kevin has hardly played anything in the League,” said Kearns. “Then we had five players tied up with Clonmel Commercials for the early part of the League.
"It's been horrendous stuff really. Yet we put ourselves in a position to get promotion despite everything. That would have been amazing.”

Waterford finished fifth in Division Four of the Allianz League, but they can legitimately feel they were not a million miles from promotion themselves. They lost to eventual Division Four champions Louth by a point, and lost by the same margin to London and Wexford. Had those three one-point losses been converted to one-point wins, they would have been promoted.

Ó hUallacháin is realistic enough to admit that Waterford football is at a low ebb right now, but he is adamant they can turn things around if they could just generate a bit of momentum.

“Look, we’re the minnows of football,” he said. “In Waterford, we’re struggling against the hurling team. But the harder you work the more you get out of it. When we start stringing a few victories together, it will come good for us. 

"We were very close in Division Four this year. It broke my heart to watch Louth go up the steps after losing by a point. Wexford, a point. London. They’re games you have to win. Until you do that, you’re not going to get the support. The county board are helping as much as they can to what we put in. It’s only once you start swinging victories together, that’s when you get the support.”

Fraher Field has never been an easy place for Tipperary to go and Waterford will make it very uncomfortable for them on Sunday. But even though the Premier County have been weakened by a talent-drain, they have produced enough good young footballers in recent years to still be able to field a decent team so are confident of getting the job done.

"We're expecting to win in Waterford,” said Kearns. “They're Division 4, we're Division 3, we've got to expect that we can confirm that status.”