Early calls coming as League comes quickly into view
By Shane Brophy, Michael Heverin and Stephen Barry
It might be only days into the new year but it already decision time for the Tipperary senior hurling and football managers as the National Leagues coming quickly into view.
It is just over two weeks until both camps begin their respective campaigns with the senior hurlers opening up at home to Galway in division 1 while the senior footballers begin division 4 across the Irish Sea against London.
With Tipperary County Board imposing budgets on their respective panels, cuts are imminent.
“It's that time of the year, coming to decision time leading into the National League where we'll have to tighten up our panel and tighten up our numbers,” revealed senior hurling manager Liam Cahill following their 1-18 each draw with Waterford in the opening round of the Coop Superstores Munster Hurling League at Fethard Town Park on Saturday.
“So, it just makes my job and the management team's job that little bit more difficult now over the next fortnight to three weeks before the start of the National League to pin down a panel that we're bringing forward with us into the National League.
“There are still a couple of more fellows there that deserve and warrant a bit of proper competitive action. And we'll do our best to give them every opportunity to stake a claim on the panel for the start of the National League.
“The month of January is creeping away. I know it's early, but it is coming at us fairly quickly and January being the start of the National League. We have a bit of work to do now to get our house in order leading into that.”
Tipperary will face Kerry in Tralee next Sunday at 1.00pm in their second game and will know what they have to do in their quest to qualify for the final as Waterford play the Kingdom this evening (Wednesday) in their second game of the group.
Football
The Tipperary senior footballers continued their positive early start under new manager Niall Fitzgerald with a 0-15 to 0-4 win over Limerick in their McGrath Cup opener in Rathkeale last Friday night.
It was very much a scratch Limerick team they faced with few faces that featured in the Tailteann Cup final last year with the Tipp youngsters facing a much stiffer examination when they played an established Cork selection in their second game last night (Tuesday) in Cappawhite, no result at the time of going to press. See www.nenaghguardian.ie for report.
“We still had a vast majority of our players under the age of 21, so we’re a very young side,” Fitzgerald said following the win over Limerick.
“There was a lot of lads there who have never played championship or even league games with Tipp.
“We're trying to build from the bottom and these young players are going to be very important to us, so it's good that they're getting a bit of experience.”