A TRULY SPECIAL day for Tipperary football. After seasons of making strides at underage level, they arrived at senior level with a moment of major glory.
Manager David Power tried to capture the significance of it as the county celebrated a first Munster senior football title in 85 years.
“Emotional, very emotional, today Tipperary needed to win a senior title. I know the 100 years since Bloody Sunday is one thing, but this is 85 years (since last Munster win) and there is a lot a lot of people after doing a huge amount of work. I always believe this was going to be our day because there has been a lot of work.
“We could have won by a bit more but we played some seriously really good football there today. 17 points, that is serious going.
“There was an inner belief. That was the big thing over the last two weeks, we always believed we could beat Cork and I didn’t have to say that, the players knew it. I didn’t have to say that, the players knew it because they were after beating Cork at minor and U21 and back in 2016 they played Cork as well.
Pitching Colin O’Riordan into the starting team was rewarded as the AFL player made his mark to contribute greatly to Tipperary’s success.
“We’ve been very fortunate with Colin, he’s been with the group basically since we’ve been back. He’s been brilliant with the players but I don’t think it is about Colin O’Riordan, it’s about the 41 men that are training every night. There was some fantastic performances and Conor Sweeney lead by example there today.”
Power hailed the long-serving stalwarts on and off the pitch who have kept Tipperary football going through leaner times.
“God almighty, they kept Tipp football going when, look, let’s face it, it wasn’t pretty, we were down in the bottom ends of Division Four and stuff like that. For all those people, it’s just a pity that they weren’t here today because I know that they’d be so, so proud of this group.
“I’m just delighted, for the likes of Philip Austin, Brian Fox, Conor Sweeney, Alan Campbell, who have been there for years, whether it’s Division Four, Division Two, they’ve been there the whole time. There was a lot of good calibre of a player there in Tipp and today, it’s great for the team but it’s great for Tipp football in general going forward.”
And now they stand seventy minutes away from an All-Ireland final appearance.
“It’s incredible, but I’m not going to even talk about an All Ireland semi-final here today. It’s about enjoying this occasion, it is huge for Tipp football and in the next couple of days we will look at Mayo.
“But 85 years, we have to just enjoy this moment.”
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