Maher out but O’Riordan in for 2023?

By Shane Brophy

The Tipperary senior footballers could have the services of former underage star Colin O’Riordan for the 2023 season.

The Templemore man was forced to retire from Australian Rules Football in August through a chronic hip injury, after seven years with the Sydney Swans where he made 34 appearances.

However, the injury isn’t severe enough to end his playing days completely and upon his return to Ireland recently for an extended Christmas break, linked up with the Tipperary squad last weekend but how his body responds to training will largely determine whether he will be able to link-up fully for 2023.

During the initial Covid lockdown of 2020, O’Riordan returned to Ireland and was given permission to join up with the Tipperary senior panel for the first time since leaving for Australia since 2015, and he played a large role to help Tipp to the historic first Munster title since 1935. Indeed, O’Riordan will link up with his teammates from that day when they finally get their hands on those Munster medals this Friday night at a function in Hotel Minella, Clonmel.

The possible return of Colin O’Riordan would be a big boost to the panel and would off-set the loss of influential defender Bill Maher who won’t be part of the panel for the new campaign.

The 2020 All-Star nominee has taken up employment in the United States and will be unavailable for the new campaign.

On top of that, one of the finds of 2022, midfielder Mark Russell sustained an ankle injury with his club Aherlow Gaels during the club championship in August which hasn’t responded to treatment and now has to go for an operation and will miss much of the league campaign.

JK Brackens Eanna McBride sustained a recurrence of a wrist injury and had an operation and will be out for 4-6 weeks but will be back for most of the league.

On a positive note, Emmet Moloney has returned to the panel having opted off to go travelling in 2022, while Paul Maher of Kilsheelan/Kilcash has returned to the football fold having been part of Liam Sheedy’s senior hurlers between 2019 and 2021.

One of the new faces on the panel include JK Brackens Conor Cadell who starred for the Tipp under 20’s in reaching the Munster football final in 2021, before opting for the under 20 hurlers this year.

However, David Power hasn’t disclosed the final make-up of the panel as the late finish to the club campaign in Munster for Clonmel Commercials, Ballina, Thurles Sarsfields and Kilruane MacDonaghs in Tipperary meant players from those clubs needed time to recharge before they are assessed.

“There was no point in releasing a panel when ultimately it was going to change within a month,” Power explained.

“We are still talking to a number of players who we are hopeful will come in as well.

“We are working off a training panel of around 47 players but that will be reduced over the next month or so.

“It is tough going and not helped by this rule from Croke Park that you cannot play challenge matches until January 1st which is ridiculous. They are expecting county teams to have no matches heading into the pre-season competitions. It is one of these stupid rules which make no sense.

“We have to look at fellas, there are some lads that have done well in the club championship, but we really won’t know to what level they are at until we see them in challenge matches or in the McGrath Cup. We are literally only six weeks away from the start of the league against Down so time is ticking along fast.”

NEW COACH

With Paddy Christie having moved on to become Longford senior manager, whom Tipp will play in the league on 26th February, Dublin native Sean Barry has come on board as the new Tipperary coach.

Barry played on the Dublin minor football team that defeated Tipperary in the All-Ireland final in 1984 but since then has done a lot of his coaching work in Meath and Louth and was previously Meath under 21 manager when he came into contact with David Power.

“The players are really enjoying his training,” Power said.

“Everything is working towards what we are trying to do on a match day. It has been great to get a fresh voice in and that was important.

“Paddy Christie did three great years with us, but you have to be able to change up the backroom team and that is good for everyone.”

HECTIC YEAR AHEAD

Tipperary’s competitive season begins on Monday, 9th January against Waterford in the first round of the McGrath Cup in Dungarvan, followed by a home game with Limerick five days later, building up to the start of the league on January 28th against Down.

From there, it will be seven games in nine weeks, and if they reach the final, that game will be a week before they play Waterford in a Munster quarter final on April 9th, an earlier start because of the new group stages coming into the All-Ireland Senior Championship and Tailteann Cup, whichever competition Tipp end up in.

“We are facing into a minimum of fifteen competitive matches,” Power revealed

“It sounds great, but it is going to test the strength of your panel. You won’t be playing your same fifteen over those games and that is why we are trying to develop a panel because we know we are going to have a long season and is going to be very hard. You are going to pick up injuries, there is no point in saying otherwise.”

He added: “From a managers’ point of view, it makes it a bit easier to have that conversation with players because it is a long season, we will have seven league matches and we’ll have at least four championship matches which makes it really attractive for a player.

“The league is important for us. The minimum is to secure our status, so we don’t go back down to division 4. That won’t be simple as we start off with Down at home. There is one week where we have to travel to Longford and Fermanagh within seven days so that is going to test our resources.

“We will just take it game by game, but we are more than capable of winning a lot of those matches, but we have to get back to where we were finishing the league this year but when it came to the championship, we looked like we had put everything into the league and flat-lined for the championship. Our preparation has been better going into this year, but time will ultimately tell on that.”