Kearns bullish if fit Tipp can knit together

Tipperary senior football manager Liam Kearns won't want to remember on National League 2019 in a hurry.

Not only because the Premier County were relegated from division 2, they were never close to getting their best team on the pitch, primarily due to injury but the hope is their luck will turn for the summer.

“We're on the back foot, we're trying to make up time with injured players,” admitted Kearns at the launch of the Munster Championship ahead of their quarter final against Limerick in Thurles this Saturday evening.

We have all the players back, it's just a question of what kind of shape they're in now. Time will tell.

“The league campaign hasn't affected the mood in the camp. It hasn't really because we recognised from the very start that we were down half our squad - at one stage we were down 12 players, when we played Armagh.

“We were competitive in every game. We're disappointed to lose our place in division 2, but I wouldn't think it has affected us going forward into the championship, other than we don't have a level playing field across the whole panel. Some fellows have a league campaign (behind them) and had (injury) issues whereas others, the likes of Robbie Kiely, who is only back training three or four weeks, have a long way to go.

“But they're all back, I have everybody fit at this stage.

“I will have a stronger hand (for the championship) personnel-wise, but to try and get them back to their best is the issue.

“If we get past Limerick we have three weeks to the next round (a semi-final against Cork) if we get past Limerick, so we just have to take it round by round. Limerick is the only game that counts now, and we can't afford to look beyond Limerick,” he said.

 

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