Captain Sweeney’s rebel influences

Tipperary captain Conor Sweeney certainly knows where his family loyalties lie ahead of Sunday’s Munster Senior Football Final.

By Shane Brophy

Tipperary captain Conor Sweeney certainly knows where his family loyalties lie ahead of Sunday’s Munster Senior Football Final.

Being on the Tipperary/Cork border in Ballyporeen, the rivalry is everywhere but his family also has a rebel influence with his mother from the other side of the county boundary but her loyalty will be to the blue and gold on Sunday.

“My mother is probably my biggest supporter,” he said

“She is probably one of the biggest Tipperary supporters, both my parents are. They will only be shouting for one team, thank God.”

It will be the same for his uncle whom Conor was aided in his love of football by being brought to big Kerry v Cork clashes in Munster as a youngster.

“I would have gone to a lot of Cork/Kerry games when I was a young fellow as my uncle was a mad Cork man,” he said.

“My uncle was a mad football man. He was also mad about me and mad about Tipperary so there will only be one team they will all be shouting for on Sunday week, thanks be to God.”

When sitting at home last Sunday week, Sweeney, no more than anyone else, would have expected to see Kerry provide the opposition in the final but early on he felt the game wasn’t going to go along expected lines.

“From the beginning we all got the feeling after five or six minutes that it was going to be one of those games and one of those days,” he said.

“I've always said that Cork have always had quality and I don't think anything is any different this year. They'd be similar to ourselves in that on any given day they could beat anyone if they're on their game.

“They obviously had a game-plan and they seemed to execute it down to a tee last. I fancied Kerry, but I wasn't overly shocked that Cork won, to be honest with you.”

In playing Cork, they are a side they are extremely familiar with, not only from championship in four of the last six years, while they have also met each other in the league in each of the last three seasons.

“Bar one when they beat us by seven or eight points a couple of years ago in the Championship in Thurles, it's been a point either way,” Sweeney said.

“We're fairly evenly matched, to be quite honest, so it should prove for a good game.

“We need to do the opposite of what we did for the first half against Limerick. We were very slow last Saturday, very lethargic, everything was lateral. We need to do the exact opposite.

“We need to get on the front foot and play with pace. Move the ball forward as quickly as we can. When we move it forward and play with pace, we're a different team. But when we slow things down, we just look so ordinary it's not even funny. We'll be looking for a fast start for sure.

“In terms of Cork, they were very impressive around the middle third I thought last week. They knew what they wanted to do from their own kick-out. They put it long and they got red jerseys around the break around the middle. They just wanted to win the break more than Kerry last week.

“So, if we're going to have any joy we're going to have to win the middle third and be prepared to win that ball on the deck.”

Having turned thirty years of age this year, the Tipperary captain is playing in just his second Munster Final, with the previous coming in 2016 against Kerry went they fell to a ten-point defeat.

And with championship structures potentially changing, this could be one of the last chances Sweeney and Tipperary have of winning a tenth Munster title.

“I certainly would have liked to have competed in more, that's for sure,” Sweeney said of experiencing Munster Finals.

“I think it's one of every player's main goals, to get to your provincial final. It just hasn't happened. 2016 was my first one, this is only my second one, and I’m around a long time. I just really hope we can give a good account of ourselves this time around. We under-performed majorly the last time which was very disappointing. But it’s always been a goal of mine to win a Munster championship, and hopefully I can make that happen this time around.”