Kearns hoping Absentees won't Prove Costly
LIMERICK v TIPPERARY
Fitzgerald Park, Kilmallock
Sunday, 31st January
Throw-in @ 2.00pm
Referee: Brendan Cawley (Kildare)
Tipperary senior football manager Liam Kearns is battling an “unprecedented” personnel crisis ahead of Sunday’s Allianz National Football League Division 3 opener against Limerick.
The Premier County will travel to Kilmallock down a host of key names for what promises to be a difficult assignment.
Kearns, a former Limerick manager himself, is led to believe that the Shannonsiders have been training extremely hard over the past number of weeks and have targeted a good start to the League against understrength Tipp.
And he admitted: “Preparations have been difficult and the amount of players missing is unprecedented in my managerial experience.
“There are good reasons for the absentees but when you put them all together, it’s extraordinary.
“That’s made things very difficult but we’re finding out about the depth of our squad and the depth of talent in Tipp.
“Hopefully, in the long run, that will stand to us and we’ll have unearthed players to play at county level that we might not have if we had our full squad.”
From last year’s panel, Colin O’Riordan has left for a two-year rookie contract with AFL outfit Sydney Swans while Steven O’Brien and Seamus Kennedy have both committed to the hurlers.
Kearns is also without five Clonmel Commercials players currently club-tied ahead of the All-Ireland semi-final against Ballyboden St Enda’s, namely Kevin Fahey, Ian Fahey, Michael Quinlivan, Donal Lynch and Jason Lonergan.
Throw in long-term injuries to George Hannigan and Ger Mulhair and the fact that Paddy Codd and Barry Grogan are absent for personal reasons, and Kearns is preparing to blood a number of new players in the League.
Liam Casey is also suspended for the first two games of the League following his sending-off against Tyrone in last year’s All-Ireland SFC qualifier.
On the plus side, goalkeeper Evan Comerford, Alan Campbell, Conor Sweeney, Philip Austin and Kevin O’Halloran are on the comeback trail from injury and some of those players could feature against Limerick.
Kearns added: “We know Limerick have an awful lot of training done and are in good shape.
“They also have all their players available, with the possible exception of Paul White, who may be injured.
“Limerick are at a good level for this time of year but with us, and given the problems we’ve had and missing the players we’re missing, we’re not as well prepared as we would like to be.
“Having said that, we’ll go there and there are two League points to fight for.
“We’re hoping to come out on the right side of it but I realise we’re up against it, for the reasons I’ve mentioned.”
Kearns isn’t making any predictions about what Tipp might achieve in the League but the opening round games against Limerick and Clare present realistic chances of gaining some early points.
He added: “I think if you win the first two League games, anything’s possible.