Tipperary boss Power is looking for change of fortunes in 2022

Rewind to Pearse Park last June to the Tipperary footballers being relegated to division 4 by Longford. It seems like an age ago but it was the culmination of a completely abject league campaign for the Premier, who were fresh after an historic Munster title.

David Power has had an up and down tenure since taking charge in 2019 but the Kilsheelan native can see green shoots already in 2022.

“We’ve been very happy (with the new players) so far. We’ve played CIT, DCU, Limerick, Kerry, and Wicklow and we’ve been very happy with the progress of the younger players,” Power revealed.

“There were a couple of good performances from the U20 players but we’ve decided to leave them with the county U20 group, because they’re very busy at the minute with freshers competitions with their colleges or with other teams at second level. So we’re just being conscious of that.

“But I have to say that overall, we’re more than happy with the work we’ve done over the past six weeks.

“One of the positives of being where we are is that we will be able to look at a few more players playing at division four level.

“We’ll be hoping to create a bit of depth in the panel, rather than relying on the same five or six fellas to step in all the time.
“That’s a big thing for us. We want to start growing our panel and make it stronger.

The return to the fold of Robbie Kiely will be a big boost for Tipp as they look to shake off the unfortunate background effects of the pandemic and gain promotion, while the pandemic somehow continues to disrupt the panel, both on and off the pitch.

“It’s great to have Robbie back. I think there’s a lot being made of the fact that we’re down three or four players but we have a couple of good young players coming in at the same time so I think there’s a good freshness to the panel and there’s a real appetite there as well so we’re just looking forward to it.

“I suppose to answer that initially, we didn’t want to be in Division Four. We were looking at Division Two being honest with you last year but that didn’t work out.

“I think we were all looking forward to an early start in 2021 and I think we would have used the confidence of having won the Munster championship. Then things unfortunately went backwards with Covid.”

“The biggest disappointment of all is that when we did have the cup, we could not bring it around to the schools. I think that would have been a big, big thing for Tipperary to promote the game.”

“We had a night planned in Hotel Minella on the second Saturday but because of the Covid they had to cancel it, so God only knows when it will be on.”

The recent approval of players for Proposal Green to go forward to congress, which would bring about a newly structured football championship, is something Power is definitely in favour of, while he also has his own views.

“In my view, the provincial system is hanging in there. That’s what I would be saying straight up and it is fairly obvious they have come up with a happy medium. In my eyes, it should be based on your league standings.

“Players want to be playing games, it’s as simple as that. Even managers want more competitive games at their level.
“The Meath ladies footballers proved that you can get to a high level if you play teams of your standard and develop from there.

Tickets now available for Tipp's league opener

“So, if you’re good enough to win the Tailteann Cup you’ll have a good chance of competing in the Sam Maguire.

“I think the green proposal will be positive even though there are other things I’d like to see with it, like the Tailteann Cup final being played the same day as the All-Ireland final.

“That’s what would be the big selling point, by making it part of the national event along with the Sam Maguire competition.
The recent lifting of restrictions certainly came as a surprise to a lot of people, none more so than Power who is slightly perplexed by the sudden nature of the announcement and is wary of the effect it could have on the intercounty game.

“I can’t get my head around that in many ways. It is great for it to have society back open but what I am saying is we will have to take it week on week.

“There are 19/20,000 students in UL for example; there is going to be Covid. I am delighted we are back open again but we are gone from a situation where we had to have Covid certs going into pubs a week ago and now we can go into a pub, hotel, anywhere without any cert.

“It is great sitting here and saying that our big target is getting out of Division Four but who is to say in a couple of weeks it could be completely out of our hands because half the panel could be gone from us because of Covid?”

“I think we’re going to come across a lot of defensive systems over the course of the league, so patience is going to be key. And I think one thing we’ve learned is to take it one game at a time, and what we’ve actually broken the fixtures into three blocks of games with Waterford and Leitrim first.

Tipperary's first bout will be a trip to the south-east to take on a Waterford team that are at a continuous low ebb, but while they have had their struggles, there is hope amongst the Deise football fraternity with former Cork ladies football manager Ephie Fitzgerald coming on board and Power is very aware of the difference he could make.

“So our immediate goals are those two games. Last year, after the Munster final win, I think we all got excited that we were going to get promoted to division two and ended up getting relegated so we’ll be taking no team for granted.

“Waterford have a new management team down there with Ephie Fitzgerald and Peter Leahy and I’m sure they’ll be waiting for us down there. We’ve to go to Dungarvan which is always a tough venue and Waterford certainly won’t fear us.”

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