Power calls for shake-up with back door shut
LEAFING through the programme at Semple Stadium on Saturday night, one page previewing the this Munster Senior Football semi-final between Tipperary and Kerry was quite instructive.
The centrepiece was a full list of Kerry’s away record against the same opposition on Tipperary soil, starting with the result from 1928 that still carries a bit of shock value right up to present day: Tipperary 1-7 Kerry 2-3.
No surprise that this game played in Tipperary town turned out to be an outlier — the 11 matches since, at various venues in the county, all went the same way to Kerry with the margin of victory rising during the visitors’ Golden Years period.
Mick O’Dwyer’s crew won by 3-13 to 0-9 back in 1975 and put up 5-16 to 2-5 in 1983.
So there was an air of predictability about Saturday night’s result — Kerry winning by 11 — even if Tipperary came in on the back of a sublime 2020 Munster campaign, when they were crowned champions for the first time since 1935.
The frustration of manager David Power was clear in his post-match interview. Even after masterminding that glorious breakout win last winter, he is adamant about the need to shake the championship format up, and hopes the GAA embrace a leaguestyle championship when the matter is discussed at Special Congress later in the year.
For the Tipperary boss, a knockout championship was a tough pill to swallow, his team’s campaign over in one evening.
Especially after they came through a shortened National League campaign that saw them relegated to Division Four, again not having the games to show their full potential.
He is asked how a team like his can improve with just one championship game.
‘Sure you can’t, that’s the reality of it. And I think every manager has said that.
‘Not to have a back door in football, and then have a back door in hurling, it makes no sense. Surely they could have definitely done a back door in football for the promotion of the game.’
‘It was great to see we had the minor team and the under-20 team there tonight. We need to be exposing those groups of young lads more to those games,’ he added.
He appealed for Congress to opt for bold, radical change rather than tinkering at the fringes.
‘I’m not sure is it Option A or Option B where the provincial championship is played on a round-robin basis, and that you’re based on your league — and I know I’m killing myself saying that because we’re in Division Four next year — but that’s five, possibly six games in Munster, then you’ve another seven.
‘If we’re really going to promote football in any county, that’s what we need. And we need to be playing in summer. Look at that pitch. We need to be playing more games like that.’
His captain Conor Sweeney said something similar about structures in the build up.
Sweeney slotted the penalty that kept his team in touch in the first half after a thunderbolt strike to the net from David Clifford set Kerry on their way coming up to the first water break — by which time they already led by 1-4 to a single Sweeney free.
While the penalty cut the gap back to four, Kerry just eased away into the distance with Sean O’Shea being such a classy presence in pulling the strings up front and Paudie Clifford putting in another high-octane display.
Kerry’s dominance was such that Peter Keane could afford to withdraw his gifted brother in the 54th minute by which time Tipperary’s discipline was beginning to fray.
At that point, the holders were down to 13 men with Jason Lonergan’s black card and 10 minute sin-bin compounding the straight red card issued to Michael Quinlivan for a closed fist tackle on Gavin Crowley, no doubt borne out of frustration out of the manner in which the contest was already ebbing away from them.
And maybe there was a deeper frustration at play when looking at the bigger picture.
‘Players want to play games,’ added Power. ‘That’s what this is about at the end of the day.
‘For us, having three league matches, then a relegation match, then this — five matches. For all
the prep, I don’t know do people realise the dedication and the effort players put into it. It’s incredible.
‘They’ve three pitch sessions, maybe two gym sessions plus they’ve no social life. So the players deserve more games.’
Paul Murphy was one of a number of high-profile Kerry substitutes introduced early by Peter Keane and he played a part in the build up to a second half goal chance where Stephen O’Brien flashed a shot that Comerford parried out for a 45.
Killian Spillane was another of those substitutes and made an instant impact — with three from play — and he stretched Kerry’s lead out to nine, 1-15 to 1-6.
With 20 minutes left, that was pretty much that. Tipperary’s title defence had fizzled out.
Given that Kerry had put 3-22 up on Clare in the quarter-final, Power took positives from blunting some of that lethal attacking edge and Bill Maher,
“The players deserve to play more games”
“We could have raised the white flag. We didn’t”
Kevin Fahey and Robbie Kiely all got through an amount of work while midfielder Jack Kennedy showed some classy touches.
‘Kerry are probably more dangerous when we have the ball because if we turn over the ball they’re going to punish us.
‘Their goal came from us dropping the ball into the keeper and they ran down and got a great goal. They punished us for those kinds of mistakes and that was the class and the difference between a Division Four and a Division One team.
‘We could have put up the white flag four weeks ago and we certainly didn’t do that. We kept the ball really well and could have put up a couple of more scores.
‘Overall though I’m very proud because we didn’t have a good league campaign.
‘It was a disaster. There’s no point saying otherwise but we have to reset and get ready for next year,’ he added.