Tipperary return to football

In Focus Tipperary footballersMore than any other county, Tipperary feel they are starting an entirely new football season. Sunday's McGrath Cup quarter-final against All-Ireland champions Kerry marks their first competitive game in exactly eight months, and what's happened since then is best described as water - and a lot of other stuff too - under the bridge.

Yet football in the county dipped to its lowest point in a long time after the Munster championship defeat to Limerick on May 16th. Manager Andy Shortall later resigned over the mid-Tipperary board's refusal to postpone a club hurling match, the players withdrew their services in support, and as a result the county did not turn up for their All-Ireland qualifier against Fermanagh. All a little embarrassing, to say the least.

In looking forward, though, Tipperary have also looked back. At the start of December they appointed Séamus McCarthy as football manager, reuniting him with a role he first held over 21 years ago. After just a few weeks of preparation McCarthy finds himself taking on the All-Ireland champions. Not that he's yet regretting it in any way.

"Coming back as manager definitely wasn't something I had in mind," he says. "But given all the difficulties of the last year I was asked to come back on board, and I was happy to do so. The most important thing was that Tipperary got back playing football again.

"So Sunday now represents the first rung of the ladder, even though we've only been together a couple of weeks. Most other teams have been together a lot longer. Still, anytime that Kerry come to town is exciting, so we're looking forward to it. It's definitely a new beginning for the players, the selectors, and for Tipperary football."

Having undergone a minor operation over Christmas, McCarthy has given most of the early preparations to his selection team of Colm O'Flaherty, who previously managed the county, Johnny Owens, who played in the Munster finals of 1993 and 1994, and Jim Healy, from the county champions Loughmore-Castleiney.

So far they've had full commitment from all the existing players.

"So far it's been more or less a continuation of last year," adds McCarthy. "Everyone has been given the opportunity to come back on board, and no one has stepped away so far. And it has been a difficult time for the players, especially when administrative issues take over. Now they have the opportunity to put all that behind them."

McCarthy, though, is confident the conflicts of 2004 are firmly in the past: "I never looked on it as a hurling versus football issue. The management requested a game to be called off three days before a qualifier, and whether it was football or hurling was immaterial. Those sort of things are not insurmountable, so we're just trying to be as positive as we can be, and ensure things like that don't happen. It was unfortunate, a little unfair, and the fall-out was enormous."

Coming back on board as manager shouldn't take much adjustment. "Sure I've been involved forever, really," he says. "I suppose it all started with the minor team of 1984, which reached the All-Ireland final against Dublin. Then I had the seniors for five years, from 1992 to 1996, and we reached two Munster finals. We also won the All-Ireland B in 1995. Then I took the junior team, where Tipperary won the All-Ireland in 1998."

Any sort of success in 2005 would be welcome, but McCarthy's first priority is consistency in the league. Then comes another date with the All-Ireland champions on May 29th - and Tipperary's first championship game in over a year.

"That's always a great day, the first time out for the All-Ireland champions. Hopefully, we'll have made good progress by then, but for now we're just concentrating on getting over the last eight months."

The Munster Council, meanwhile, have announced some changes to the McGrath Cup quarter-finals, with the match between CIT and UCC now set for the Mardyke in Cork on Monday afternoon, and the meeting between Limerick and Cork to be played under lights at Newtownshandrum that evening.

The proceeds of the four quarter-final gates will be donated to one of the South Asia disaster funds.