'Every time you play tougher opposition you learn from it,' says Tipp boss Fitzgerald

Following their 1-26 to 0-10 defeat by Cork in this week's McGrath Cup tie in Cappawhite, Tipperary's footballers are turning their thoughts to their next next competitive fixture, an away game against London at McGovern Park, Ruislip, in the first round of the Allianz League Division 4 on Sunday January 25.

Manager Niall Fitzgerald had this to say following the defeat by Cork - “I don’t think anyone expected Cork to come with the strength of the team that they lined out with. That’s not far off their championship team, they were very strong and it showed. We are reliant on a lot of young players this year. We didn’t have access to those lads in the colleges and rightly so. They have Sigerson and Fitzgibbon commitments.

“We have learned a lot of lessons there tonight and Cork are well ahead of us, a good few years ahead in terms of development. It wasn’t far off that team that pushed Kerry to extra-time last year. They are a strong group.

“It takes a few years of development to get to the level that some of those lads are at.

“It’s a lesson for us and something that we are aspiring to achieve over the next two years. We want to be getting towards that level and we have work to do to achieve it.

“Every time you play tougher opposition you learn from it. The level of movement, the amount of runners that they were committing to the attack, how varying there were. That’s a huge learning. They were very effective on the press. They put our backs under pressure.

“Lads will learn from that. I felt that Cork were very impressive tonight. They are a team that should give Division 2 a rattle this year.

“The league this year is 100% our priority to get promotion.

“This is where Tipp are at at the moment, you can talk about the championship and all that, but the National League and Tailteann Cup is our level at the moment and we are setting our targets.

“Division Four is not simple. Every other team fancies their chances of getting promoted and there are no easy games. London look to be stronger than last year and don’t forget for the last two years Tipp didn’t get a result against London. We have to go away there for our first league game.

"It’s going to be a real tough task”.