High School and The Abbey should be football nurseries says Tipperary football manager

Tipperary’s record at underage level for the past few years hasn’t been good, so you have to ask where are the players going to come from,  David Power was asked at last Saturday’s press event held at the Anner Hotel in Thurles.

“The reality is that when I made the presentation for the senior job that was one of the points that I was making,” replied Power, who on Sunday will see his Tipp side begin their League Division 3 campaign with a home tie in Clonmel against Down (2pm).

“Unfortunately at minor level, we’re probably number five at underage in Munster. We’re probably ahead of Waterford, after that you couldn’t really say we’re ahead of Limerick or Clare, and going back to when I was Minor manager in 09 and 10, we were beating Limerick, we were beating Waterford. “That’s what I have been saying, we have to get back to a stage when we are beating Waterford, Limerick and Clare on a consistent basis. When we get to that stage then we can look at Cork and Kerry.We can’t be looking at Cork and Kerry until we’re back beating those three counties.  To be fair to the County Board and the Football Board, they know the issues too so they are trying to put the structures in place over the next couple of years.

Tipperary football manager David Power sees the Abbey CBS Tipperary (pictured above celebrating a competition win a few years ago) and the Clonmel High School as important nurseries for Tipperary football.

“The Robbie Cannon appointment is a crucial one for the next 3-5 years. People will see the benefits of that, SSC is hugely important. 

“The High School and the Abbey CBS in Tipp town should be two football nurseries. That’s an area that kind of bugs me. It’s great to see the Abbey in the All-Ireland B Final.

“The High School, with all the talent that’s going into that school, should be doing a lot, lot better. I think that’s an area, I don’t know if it’s the County Board, or coaching and games, or the Football Board issue.

Tipperary open league campaign against Down in Clonmel on Sunday

“When we won the Minor All-Ireland in 2011 it’s like we woke up the giant of Kerry, look what Kerry then did after what we did. They’re (Kerry’s) big thing was they developed players through the schools. They picked four, five or six schools and they used them from an SSC point of view. So they were only meeting once at the weekend from a skills development point of view.

“I think that’s something we have to look at. Kerry have a new school, Rathmore, who have never really been on the scene and all of a sudden they are”.