TIPPERARY’S U21 FOOTBALLERS were back at work this morning following yesterday’s sensational All-Ireland semi-final victory over Dublin in Tullamore.
Tommy Toomey’s charges met at the Anner Hotel in Thurles for a recovery session to soothe aching limbs and muscles following a 0-14 to 0-12 success over last year’s champions at O’Connor Park.
Thoughts now turn to the county’s first ever All-Ireland U21 final appearance on 2 May against Tyrone.
But for many of the Tipperary players, this won’t be their first experience of such a big day.
Evan Comerford, Colin O’Riordan, Steven O’Brien, Ian Fahey and Bill Maher started against Dublin when Tipp won the 2011 All-Ireland minor football crown.
And a year later, Maher was captain when the Premier County’s minor hurlers lifted the Irish Press Cup.
Current U21 football skipper Colin O’Riordan and O’Brien were also members of the minor hurling squad three years ago.
And O’Riordan was quick to bring Tipperary feet back down to earth on Saturday as he called the players into an immediate post-match huddle.
Maher revealed the message from O’Riordan, who produced another towering display at midfield.
“Keep the head down – make sure you have everything right, get the bodies in good shape.
“Coming in, the boys had done great work with us and everybody was in good condition, good fitness.
“It showed there in the last five minutes. We could easily have died away but we stuck with it and got the last few points to get us over the line.”
Tipperary beat Cork to claim just their second ever Munster crown in this grade but Maher admitted that facing the might of Dublin was a step up.
“Our toughest game all year. Coming up here we knew Dublin were the hot favourites but hard work got us through it.”
And Maher insisted that the 2011 minor final victory over Dublin had absolutely no bearing on this latest scalping of the Metropolitans at underage level.
“Only a handful of us were playing that day.
“A lot of lads were playing today that had never played in an All-Ireland semi-final before. They were the players who won the game for us – players like Ross Mulcahy and Colm O’Shaughnessy. That’s what we need – keep them coming through.”
And Maher remained confident even when Dublin moved into a five-point lead early in the second half.
With the breeze at their backs, the winners came roaring back with a power-packed display.
“We knew the breeze in the second half was strong and you could see that with the few frees the boys missed in the first half – they’d never missed them before.
“We knew we had a good chance at half-time (0-3 to 0-7 behind) – we were in a good position. They tried to blow us out of it in the first half but we stuck with them and that gave us a bit of confidence for the second half.”
