Power lauds best performance since Munster success

By Shane Brophy

Since that November Sunday in 2020 when Tipperary football was riding the crest of a wave as Munster champions, not much has gone right in the meantime.

It is always darkest before the dawn and David Power hopes that Saturday night’s win over Sligo will be the launch-pad for the upward curve.

“This is probably our best performance since the Munster Final in 2020,” he admitted.

“We should have won that by ten points, we were that much better than Sligo.

“That only happens by winning games and hopefully this win will drive us on. It’s a massive win. I am very proud of the lads, we played some serious football.”

It wasn’t a flawless performance by any means but the energy and willingness to take the game to Sligo in attack, plus be more aggressive in their defending was a notable shift from their opening two performances in the league.

“The big thing we focused on for the past couple of weeks was our tackle count,” Power revealed.

“It was horrendous against Leitrim, it was way better tonight. The silly turnovers, yes there were turnovers tonight, but at least they were in the Sligo half, not in our half. We worked on a lot of things but still have a lot more to work on.

“The most annoying thing from tonight is that we should have had more on the scoreboard, but the one thing I said to them at half time was that for the previous sixteen months we weren’t creating chances, but we created the chances, now we have to start converting and that will come as well. I thought we controlled the game. We weren’t under massive pressure.”

Power has always stressed there was a period of transition coming and in Mikey O’Shea and Cathal Deeley, he had a young starter and player from the bench who added energy, adding to the leadership of Kevin Fahey and captain Conor Sweeney who were very prominent also.

“Conor Sweeney picked up a serious injury in training on Tuesday night, a serious gash to his shin that required six or seven stitches but he made himself available to play and that is the leadership we need,” Power revealed.

“We are going through a transition and are not going to get carried away after tonight but hopefully this is our first block and hopefully will build from this.

“You take Mikey O’Shea, I thought had an unbelievable first half. This is a guy that hasn’t played underage football for Tipp. He is only going to grow and get better.

“Conal Kennedy really made a serious impact as well. We got the changes right because we were flagging around the fifty-minute mark and needed fresh legs to be fair to the lads they stepped up.”

One of the few downsides from the performance was the shoulder injury picked up by Paudie Feehan in the second half which looks set to see him have a period on the side-lines.

It was a win Tipperary needed, but also David Power, who admitted he was feeling the pressure building after a poor last year or so.

“It was more of an internal pressure as I am a winner,” he added.

“It has been a tough twelve months. You can start doubting yourself and your ability but tonight I saw a team that was playing for the management team. I saw us playing good football again.

“The big thing, and it came out in a couple of the meetings, some of our lads were afraid to make a mistake but I said to them, we can’t be afraid. At the end of the day, you have to go out and enjoy it. Some lads were putting wicked pressure on themselves. Pressure is what is happening in Ukraine. We should be enjoying this, and I said it to the lads to go out an express yourselves. They wouldn’t be in that dressing room of they weren’t good players, and they are good players and getting that belief into them is what it is all about.”