Tipp likely need a win over Leitrim with a margin to progress in Tailteann Cup

GAA: Tailteann Cup Round 3 Preview

By Stephen Barry

TIPPERARY v LEITRIM

TEG Cusack Park, Mullingar

Sunday, 1st June

Throw-in @ 1.30pm

Referee: Thomas Murphy (Galway)

Tipperary captain Steven O’Brien is fully aware of the permutations as the senior footballers head into a “do-or-die” Tailteann Cup clash with Leitrim this Sunday.

When the final round is completed, the three third-placed teams with the best records will advance to the preliminary quarter-finals. One will miss out.

The winners between Tipp and Leitrim are effectively competing against whoever emerges from Group 3 Antrim’s clash with London to avoid being the odd one out. Tipp’s score difference of -19 is marginally better than both London (-20) and Antrim (-24). However, that the Antrim v London game throws in fifteen minutes after the start of the Tipp v Leitrim game isn’t ideal.

Premier captain O’Brien was part of squads that have fallen on either side of that cut-off. Tipp finished in the unlucky loser position in 2023 and just avoided a repeat as the lowest-ranked qualifier in 2024.

“Score difference is massive in this competition with three coming out, because we know that New York are there to replace the worst third place,” O’Brien admitted.

“Two years ago, that happened to us, so we’re very conscious of that now.

“It’s do or die.

You have to win and put yourself in a position to come out. That’s what the focus is going to be.

“You have to dust yourself down and get back on the horse straight away. That’s what we’ll do.”

Speaking in the aftermath of the 3-19 to 1-11 defeat to Kildare, O’Brien referred to the 25-point beating the Lilywhites inflicted on Leitrim.

Tipp were certainly more competitive than that, but their opponents’ conditioning and depth caught up with them in the end to present a skewed look on the scoreboard.

“You want to play for a full seventy minutes. It’s a young group. For a lot of lads, it’s their first time playing seventy minutes. You can maybe see that a bit,” said O’Brien.

“If the game ended on sixty minutes, the score difference would have been an awful lot different. Especially, seeing the score Kildare kicked the last day, we had ourselves in a good position and then boys are tired.

“When you see what they’re able to bring in off the bench, it was always going to be tough. Credit to the lads, they stayed fighting to the end, but we would be disappointed with conceding the last few scores.

“We’re building, it’s a young group, so plenty of learnings. You can’t fault anyone for the effort.”

In a campaign where Tipp have beaten Waterford and competed well for long spells against Clare, Sligo, and Kildare, O’Brien sees plenty of positives.

“You’re finding new lads the whole time,” he said.

“If you look at this year alone, you’ve Cian Smith putting his hand up there. In the first half, he looked like a fella who’s been playing for the last ten years, he’s so confident and he’s such quality in him. And Jack O’Neill, lads like that.

“Every game we can get at a competitive level like this, albeit they might be a step ahead of us, that’ll grow the group too, and we can see lads stepping up each week.”

O’Brien is equally happy to get a run of games under his belt. The Ballina clubman made his fourth consecutive start in blue and gold for the first time since the 2021 League.

“It’s good. Credit to the medical team that we have with us this year, they’re top class,” he said.

“They’re monitoring me brilliantly, and managing the load is huge. But it helps too when you’ve 35 other lads putting the shoulder to the wheel.

“We’re in a good place.

We have nearly everyone fit and able to play, which is huge.

We haven’t had that in the last couple of years.

That takes the toll off of individuals

“We’re glad to have a week off just to regroup, freshen up the bodies, and it’s a big game ahead.”