Quirke injury blow as Tipp welcome the champs
By Joe Scully
Tipperary begin their All-Ireland Senior Championship campaign this Saturday when they welcome back-to-back All-Ireland champions Cork to the Ragg.
This will be the Premier County’s opening fixture of the group stage, while it will be the second fixture for the Rebelettes following a comprehensive 38-point victory over Limerick last weekend.
It is as tough an opening encounter Tipp could have faced, but it is a chance for them to set down an early marker, as they look end the hoodoo of recent years where they have fallen at the semi-final stage in five of the last six years.
Manager Denis Kelly is in positive mood and is happy with how the build-up has been going, but also knows how difficult a task his side face, especially with it being their first game in over a month compared to Cork who are already up to championship pace.
“Yeah, things have been going very well, we’re happy with the way things have gone,” he began.
“Training has been very good, we have a nice body of work done since the Waterford game in Munster, so that has been the upside of not qualifying for the Munster final, as it took away any distractions, we might have had in preparing for this weekend.
“While Saturday is not do or die just yet as there is leeway there, as we still have another three games left after it and look no matter how hard you have been training, it’s going to be hard to hit the heights on your first day, but we will be looking to give a good account of ourselves against Cork and see where it takes us.
“It will be good to have it at home in the Ragg and hopefully the support will get out and push the girls on, and hopefully we can put our best foot forward.
“Whoever wins on Saturday will probably be favourites to top the group, and get straight to an All-Ireland semi-final, otherwise you end up in a quarter final, which will be a tricky fixture no matter who you play.
“So yeah, it’s an important game for us, but at the same time we will looking to really hit the ground running and bring a lot of the things we have worked on in training to the game and really hit the ground running.”
The big injury news coming out of the Tipperary camp is the loss of star defender Clodagh Quirke due to a cruciate knee ligament injury picked up against Waterford, with the Clonoulty/Rossmore player due to undergo surgery soon on the injury, the second time in she sustained the injury after previously falling victim in 2021.
There are also a few other doubts within the camp, but Kelly is hoping they will be all cleared up by Saturday.
He revealed: “Karen Kennedy got injured against Waterford and it’s been a slow return, so not 100% yet, but we’re hoping by next weekend she will be good to go.
“Karin Blair is similar as is Clodagh McIntyre, an injury we will have to see how she gets on this week.
“As it’s the first round for us and if they are not fully right, we probably won’t chance them but hopefully come Saturday all three will be good to go.”
The Borris-Ileigh clubman is also delighted that the whole shorts/skirts debate has finally been put to bed and is hoping now that it had been dealt with, everyone can get on with business on the field.
“Look, it’s great that the players now have the choice to wear what they want to wear. It was probably blown out of all proportion, but it’s nice to have it all dealt with and we can concentrate on the matters on the pitch rather than stuff off the pitch.”