Moloney to miss 2022 season after knee complications

By Shane Brophy

New Tipperary ladies football manager Peter Creedon has named a 29-player panel for the forthcoming Lidl National League which gets underway next month.

He will be without three key players for the start of his tenure, including Orla O’Dwyer and Aisling McCarthy who are unavailable until April, at least, due to their Aussie Rules commitments Down Under, which got underway last weekend.

However, Aishling Moloney will miss the entire campaign after she suffered complications from the cruciate knee injury sustained against Dublin in the National League last year and has been forced to withdraw from the panel.

“I just explained to him (Peter), look, it’s just going to have to cut it for this year and take me out of your picture because it’s just unrealistic to go back,” she said on Tipp FM recently.

“I met with Peter…and it actually kind of hit me coming home in the car, it was probably the first time I probably shed a tear since it all happened because it kind of became overwhelming to me.

“It was like, ‘You think nine months and ah sure, we’ll give it 12,’ but for me it’s going into next year I’m not going to be back, so I’m going to miss two years.

Creedon, the former Tipperary senior men’s boss who succeeded Declan Carr, announced a 29-strong panel, with fourteen Tipperary clubs represented. The two outliers are goalkeeper Lauren Fitzpatrick, who plays her club football with Waterford’s Ballymacarbry, and Angela McGuigan of Eadestown in Kildare, but formerly of Clonmel Commercials.

Tipperary open their Division 2 League campaign with a trip to Kerry, before also facing Laois and Clare. While the county suffered league relegation in 2021 and struggled in senior championship, they secured their top-flight status.