Tipp seniors edge out under strength Kerry

GAA: McGrath Cup – Munster Senior Football Cup

 

Tipperary 1-13

Kerry 1-11

 

Report: Thomas Conway at Clonmel Sportsfield

 

MATCH DIGEST

Man of the Match: Conor Sweeney (Tipperary)

SCORERS – Tipperary: Conor Sweeney 1-6 (1-0 pen, 0-2 frees); Steven O’Brien, Jack Kennedy 0-2 each; Greg Henry, Colman Kennedy, Padraic Looram 0-1 each.

Kerry: Paul O’Shea 1-3; Seán Quilter 0-4 frees; Cormac Coffey, Ronan Buckley, Seán Keane, Evan Cronin 0-1 each.

 

The Tipperary footballers brought down the curtain on an exploratory pre-season campaign with a two-point victory over John Sugrue’s Kerry U20 outfit, emerging from Clonmel with plenty of thoughts to ponder ahead of their Allianz League Division 3 opener against Down in the same venue later this month.

Because both sides had experienced unflattering losses to Cork in their respective first-round ties, neither team could qualify from Group B and the competitive incentive to this game had disappeared.

Tipperary fell to a 3-19 to 0-14 loss to Cork last Thursday night in Mallow but that said, success generally isn’t the main objective for teams during pre-season competitions like the McGrath Cup, but Tipperary manager David Power indicated that Sunday’s win did carry some importance for his players on a psychological level, even if their opposition did not resemble Kerry’s usual troupe.

“Look, it doesn’t matter what Kerry team are out there, Kerry will always be able to play football, so it was important to get a win today,” he said.

 

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