Underage success gives seniors a boost ahead of Tailteann campaign – O’Connor

By Niall McIntyre

Sean O’Connor says green shoots at underage level have given the Tipperary footballers a big boost ahead of their Tailteann Cup campaign which begins this Sunday against Sligo.

The minors beat Clare to win the Darrel Darcy Cup on Monday with the under-20s drawing with Cork in the last round, when a win would have taken them to the Munster final against Kerry.

The seniors will look to add to the feel-good-factor surrounding Tipperary football in their Tailteann Cup campaign, with O’Connor back ‘fully fit’ after tearing his hamstring in the the league against Limerick.

Philly Ryan’s men mixed the good with the bad in a league campaign where they started strongly, with two wins and a draw, before losing four on the bounce as their promotion hopes slipped away.

“The London result knocked the wind out of our sails,” O’Connor said at the launch of the Tailteann Cup.

“We picked up a few injuries in the next couple of games and didn’t finish as strong as we would like to.”

“But it’s a young group, with new management this year. We knew it wasn’t going to be easy, with a lot of turn-over in players. It was a good learning curve for us as a group and hopefully it will set us up for the Tailteann Cup and next year.”

A number of key players aren’t involved with Tipperary this year such as O’Connor’s Clonmel Commercials’ club-mates Conal and Jack Kennedy, as well as the retired Conor Sweeney but the ace forward says they have a ‘great bunch’ despite the absence of those stalwarts.

“The demands of inter-county football are very high,” he says.

“It’s nearly like a full-time job outside your job, training three times a week, gymming twice a week.

“You can understand why fellas might step away but we have a great bunch who are really committed to it. Conal is travelling abroad, and Jack is taking a year out, he’s going abroad. Hopefully we’ll have the boys back in the near future, two very, very good footballers.”

O’Connor, who works as a trainee accountant in Cork having recently completed his studies in UCC, says there is great excitement amongst the panel ahead of their clash with Sligo. The game takes place in Tubbercurry with Markievicz Park being refurbished.

“It will be a tough one. We played Sligo in the Tailteann Cup last year, and they beat us well.

“They’re a team who have been on the up for two or three years, making two Tailteann Cup semi-finals.

“But these are the teams you want to play against, to see where you are at the moment and to see where you want to get to. We’re going up with full belief that if we can put in a performance, we can hopefully get a result.”

O’Connor, who was on the Under 20 team of the year in 2022, says it gives him and his team-mates a ‘big lift’ to see the brilliant players coming through Tipperary’s underage ranks.

“There’s a couple of lovely players on those minor and under-21 teams. As a senior player, that gives you a big lift, seeing the prospects coming through.

“It’s the key ingredient, to be producing teams who are used to winning at minor and under-21.

“A bit of consistency for us as a team, in every aspect, could help us get back to where we want to be which is probably out of Division 4 and up in Division 3.”