TIPP WILL HAVE NO FEAR OF REBELS, SAYS POWER
TIPPERARY have ‘no fear’ of Cork in Sunday’s Munster football final, the Premier County’s manager has said. The bookies have made Tipperary 4/1 long-shots to win a first Munster title since 1935. But David Power is adamant that since many of his players have beaten Cork at underage level as well as in the 2016 senior Championship that they will have no psychological hang-ups about facing the Rebels. Power led the Tipp minors to an All-Ireland title in 2011, and they knocked Cork out of the minor championship three years on the bounce — 2011-13 — and beat them in the 2015 Under-21 final. Allied to the team’s first senior win over the Rebels in 72 years in 2016, it means that 15 of the current Tipperary panel have beaten Cork at some level and Power is confident that his players will not quail at the sight of a Cork jersey. He remarked: ‘I could even go back to our Under15/16 days this group have beaten Cork. ‘This group won’t fear Cork, because we’ve beaten them at every level going up. This is a huge opportunity for Tipperary or Cork, and whoever is lucky enough to get to the All-Ireland semi-final, a that’s going to be another opportunity. ‘There’s a huge chance for any of the teams (Mayo await in the semifinal) on our side to get to an All-Ireland final,’ declared Power.
The boss also said that his players did not hesitate when asked to change out of their traditional blue-and-gold colours to wear a green and white on Sunday — the colours the Tipperary team wore when playing Dublin in Croke Park on Bloody Sunday 100 years ago. ‘After the Limerick game got a phone call asking us if we would like to wear the green-and-white jersey,’ said Power. ‘We tapped into the leadership group and the two words that came back were that it would be an “honour” and a “privilege” to wear that jersey. It’s brilliant to see that we are respecting the 100-year anniversary and will tap into a bit of it but we won’t go overboard as ultimately it is about the Munster final and it is about us performing and that’s what it is about we have to get a performance that hopefully can beat Cork and that is what we are striving for. ‘We just have to get the balance right. You can get too emotional about it as well,’ said Power.