Tipperary ‘will be ready’ for Championship opener despite mixed league campaign - Bubbles

Tipperary hurling legend John ‘Bubbles’ O’Dwyer has said that the Premier County “will be ready” for their Championship opener against Cork despite a mixed Allianz League campaign.

‘Bubbles’, who is a pundit for GAA+, was speaking at the launch of the streaming service’s schedule for the upcoming season.

Speaking at Croke Park, the Killenaule native said that despite some disappointing defeats, manager Liam Cahill will be satisfied with how the campaign went.

“I think he will be happy enough. I suppose getting the first two league wins, we saw that it didn’t really guarantee their safety but they followed up then with two losses and then finished it off with a win and a draw.

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“I think he’ll be very happy he blooded in a lot of young players. I saw most of their games. They’ve tried a lot of new things, a lot of stuff that you probably won’t see tried in the Championship.

“They try these things in the league and challenge games and that but he’ll be very happy. He’s brought a lot of the Under 20s in from last year that won the All-Ireland and even a couple of the minors that won the All-Ireland two years ago.”

O’Dwyer continued by saying that Cahill won’t be too concerned about missing out on the league final.

“He probably wouldn’t be targeting the league final. He’s happy to stay up and then I suppose win their couple of games and try out new players, so he’ll be happy enough.

“There is a lot of talk about Limerick and Cork so Tipp will be happy to sit in the background, let them two teams go at it in two weeks and they’ll be ready for the first round of Championship when Cork come to town.”

On the subject of the league final, ‘Bubbles’ admitted that Limerick and Cork have looked like the two strongest teams so far this year.

“Look in fairness, Ben O’Connor has come in, he’s changed very little. He’s tried out a few new players.

“And then Limerick then, I suppose because they set such high standards they probably dropped off last year but they look like they’re coming back to somewhat their best.

“So at the minute, you’d probably say they are the best two counties on league form but again, Championship is a different kettle of fish and the run of fixtures might suit certain teams and they mightn’t suit others.”

O’Dwyer subsequently predicted that Limerick, Tipperary and Clare will be the three Munster teams to qualify for the All-Ireland series.

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“Tipp are going to beat Cork in the first round, then they [Cork] lose to Waterford in Waterford as well. You’re laughing lads but Cork haven’t beaten Waterford in Waterford in a long time.

“So as I said, in the run of fixtures, Tipp have Cork at home, then they’ve Waterford away and then they’ve Clare at home. So you’d be hoping that Tipp might have two out of three if not three out of three in that.

“There’s very little being said about Clare because they’re coming from Division 1B. It’s only less than 18 months ago that Clare were All-Ireland champions so I think there’s still one sting of a tail left in that Clare team.”

He also predicted that Limerick would go on to win the All-Ireland this year, describing them as being “on another level”.

Asked about life since his retirement from inter-county hurling, ‘Bubbles’ said that he is enjoying his role as a pundit.

“Look it’s really enjoyable, it’s good you get to go to these games. Especially the Munster Championship with packed houses for round robin games, it's unbelievable.

“So just to be part of it is nice and I'm looking forward to the year ahead,” he concluded.

Two of Tipperary's Munster Championship games, namely against Waterford and Clare, will be shown exclusively on GAA+.

Individual games can be purchased at a price of €15 whilst a pass to see every game this season is priced at €95.