Footballers have plenty to aim for in Munster Championship

GAA: Munster Senior Football Championship Quarter Final Preview

 

By Shane Brophy

TIPPERARY v CLARE
Semple Stadium, Thurles
Sunday 1st November
Throw-in @ 1.00pm (E.T. & Pens)
Referee: Jerome Henry (Mayo)
Live on GAAgo

Nothing about this year is remotely usual and just a week after concluding their National League campaign, Tipperary go straight into championship action when they host Clare in a Munster senior football quarter final next Sunday.

It would seem strange that in a year where both counties have a path to a Munster Final without either Kerry or Cork in front of them, neither Tipperary and Clare would have been focusing on this game too much prior to last weekends final round games in the league.

Tipperary were in a relegation battle to stay up in division three while in division 2, Clare were a few minutes away from possibly ending up being promoted to division 1, yet they ended up just avoiding relegation following Cavan’s defeat to Roscommon.

However, with their league campaigns now behind them, both will feel next Sunday is a huge opportunity not to get to a Munster Final and in this straight knockout format, anything is possible.

The teams that do well in 2020 will be doubly remembered not only for their successes, but also because they were done in a pandemic year that won’t be forgotten.

For Tipperary, there is another item to go with it in the form of the centenary of Bloody Sunday which is just over three weeks away.
When the programme of events were announced at the start of the year to mark the tragic events of November 21st, 1920, Tipperary would have been hoping for a good championship run to coincide with the anniversary. Now, there is the opportunity to play in a Munster Final on the same weekend as the GAA marks the events of one hundred years ago.

It will be one aspect Tipperary manager David Power and his management that will be drilling into the players about the opportunity that is in front of them. It would be a lovely if Tipperary footballers had a good run to coincide with the Bloody Sunday remembrance, however it is up to the players to perform.

Despite having to come to Thurles, Clare will go into the game as favourites and rightly so as they have been hugely consistent under Colm Collins over the past six years and despite what the table suggested, easily maintained their division 2 status this year.

You could argue that while Tipperary enjoyed greater underage success over the last decade, Clare have maximised more from their talented group of players than Tipperary have, despite reaching an All-Ireland semi-final in 2016, the same year Clare got to a quarter final where they were defeated by Kerry.

While the pandemic has worked in Tipperary’s favour with Michael Quinlivan and Liam Casey returning to the fold having travel plans affected, so have Clare with Gary Brennan and Jamie Malone back in harness after missing the early rounds of the league.

Brennan’s presence will be huge as he is one of the best midfielders in the country, in a sector where Tipperary have struggled in their return over the last two weeks, and with Steven O’Brien touch and go to be available after tweaking a hamstring against Offaly, Clare will try and turn the game into a midfield battle.

In that respect, Tipperary must find a way of retaining a greater share of their own kickouts, even if Clare are likely to push up on them and force Evan Comerford to go long. Comerford has a wand of a left foot but he needs more options to get those kicks away and in O’Brien and Jack Kennedy, they are good fielders of the ball, but not in crowded scenarios.

When in possession, Tipperary are a threat going forward, particularly with the raiding capabilities from deep of Bill Maher, Kevin Fahey, and Robbie Kiely. However, too many times in the last two games, they have taken the wrong option close to goal. Tipperary need to be patient in their use of the ball as the opportunities will come.

The bigger harder surface of Semple Stadium will be to their liking and should be able to create more scoring opportunities. Tipperary will hope to get Michael Quinlivan more onto the ball. In playing him at centre forward in the last two games, the Tipperary management are looking to get him playing a similar role to what he does for Clonmel Commercials where is pace and hard running from deep is almost unstoppable. However, Quinlivan has to help himself too and work harder off the ball to work himself into positions to take the ball on threatening positions from where he can do damage.
It shouldn’t all on his shoulders as Conor Sweeney can show more than he did against Leitrim while Liam Boland must be knocking hard on the door for selection after two impressive cameos off the bench in the last two weeks.

When the sides last met competitively in April 2019, Clare edged a high scoring affair in Thurles and with the likes of Eoin Cleary and Kealon Sexton in their attack, they will pose considerable problems for the Tipperary backs if they get a good supply of ball.

It conditions allow, it has the makings of an exciting game as both sides return to their roots of old-style knockout Munster championship football and for Tipperary if they have the belief and mental toughness, they are more than capable of progressing to a semi-final.