PLUS: Eoin Kelly on the Tipperary template
Tipp’s all-time leading scorer Kelly wants to see ace marksmen Forde and Callanan together up front
EOIN KELLY has rubbished suggestions that Jason Forde and Seamus Callanan can’t play together in the fullforward line.
Callanan hasn’t featured for Tipperary this year due to injury but he returned to club action of late and is in line to appear in Sunday’s Munster Championship opener away to Limerick.
In his absence, Forde came of age in the full-forward position and was top scorer in the League with a whopping 7-72.
There have been suggestions two into one won’t go but Kelly (right), the county’s all-time top scorer, gave those short shrift.
“I’d hate to hear that now,” he said, “have the two of them in an inside full-forward line, I’d love to see them in there, plenty of space, that being the game plan to get plenty of ball into them.
“I’ll tell you if the two of them were hitting form like we know they can, Tipp would be serious.
“If you had Seamus Callanan and Jason Forde in a two man full-forward line, plenty of possession going in, I’d be a happy Tipp supporter.
“Now I don’t know how Seamie is playing after his injury or anything like that.
“I saw him in a club match now and I thought he was moving well because that back injury he had is not simple, kind of similar to what Richie Hogan had.”
There are suggestions Callanan will be held in reserve from the start though his lead in is very similar to Kelly’s in 2009, when the Mullinahone ace also missed the NHL due to a back problem.
Manager Liam Sheedy pitched him in from the start in their first game against Cork.
“Sheedy just said to me, ‘Look you’re going to be playing, we’ve the confidence in you’.
“Maybe that’s the way I’d approach it with Seamus Callanan. Obviously he’s back training and that, I don’t know how he’s going or anything like that, but you’d get a feel for a lad.
“Don’t get me wrong, the
surfaces in Semple Stadium, Gaelic Grounds, in comparison to the club pitches like, your touch is going to be perfect on those surfaces.
“I wouldn’t judge a fella on a club match because the club pitches are not going to be up to scratch. If he’s moving well in training I’d probably throw him in.
“He’d be hungry for it like. I saw him in a club match and I liked the way he was moving, I liked his movement, he mightn’t have set the world on fire but he seemed to be moving freely.
“I’d love to see the two of them starting now next weekend.”
Kelly admits to being fearful about this weekend’s fixture.
“They were annihilated in last year’s League final and very poor against
Cork then. They only picked it up then as the season went on.
“But you don’t have time to pick it up now.
You don’t have the luxury of maybe a lesser team coming to town.
“I think it’s a massive game for Tipperary. If they come out of the Gaelic Grounds with a point, a draw, I’d be very happy.
“Obviously they’re going for the win but you just don’t want to lose that game.”
Eoin Kelly is a Paddy Power GAA Hurling ambassador and will feature as a regular columnist on Paddy Power News throughout the Championship
to get back there.”
Clare start their Munster campaign away to Cork on Sunday but Daly added: “We have to win the two home games and that gives us a massive chance of being at least third in the group.
“And if we can pick up something away from home in Cork, even one draw away in Thurles, you’ve a great chance of being in a Munster final and then you’re away and you’re on the road.”