It's Tipperary and Waterford again this weekend - Footballers need to win big and hope!

Most secondary schools throughout the country will be finishing up for the summer this weekend, with a hard year’s work behind them. It may very well be the same for both the Tipperary and Waterford senior football teams on Saturday next when they meet in their third and final Tailteann Cup round robin game.

With both sides having already lost heavily in their respective games to Meath and Down, it looks highly probable now that their clash, at the mandatory neutral venue, of Páirc Uí Chaoimh, is nothing short of the proverbial dead rubber. To all intents and purposes, bar a highly unlikely sequence of results, neither will be able to pick up one of the three best-placed third team spots required to stay alive in the competition.

Indeed, as Group 2 currently stands Waterford are ahead of Tipperary, minus 20 points against minus 29, and the Deise, should they record a rare victory over the Premier, stand a better chance of making up the ground necessary to deny either Laois, Carlow or Wexford/Leitrim.

Firstly, for David Power’s side to progress, they will have to win and win well against their near- neighbours and seriously reduce their minus 29 points difference. A victory, most likely in the region of 16 points, will be necessary before anything else is considered.

Starting debuts for two Tipperary footballers in team to play Waterford in Tailteann Cup

Thereafter, basically what needs to happen is for either one of these scenarios to come through: (a) London to beat Laois; or (b) Carlow (-7) to lose to Longford and squander a 22 points scoring advantage to Tipp; or (c) Leitrim (-18) to win against Wexford - and the smaller that winning margin the better for Tipperary.

It would be a very rare, hat-eating occasion in sport if that permutation came through but most likely the Tipp footballers will be throwing their county boots under the stairs on Saturday night until the resumption of the Division 4 League in January 2024.

It has been a well- documented disaster of a year for Tipp football and as it stands right now the only team they have managed to defeat in 2023 are Saturday’s opponents Waterford, and twice at that.

TWO WINS FOR TIPP
On Sunday, January 7, Tipp recorded a 2-14 to 0-7 win over the Deise in a McGrath Cup first round, on a day that promised so much with Tipperary utilising 24 players. Played at the Gold Coast grounds, that first run out of the year had a starting full-forward line made up of captain Conor Sweeney, Steven O’Brien and Sean O’Connor.

The sides were to meet again in the quarter-final of the Munster Championship in FBD Semple Stadium on Easter Sunday, April 9. This time, without the injured Conor Sweeney but still with a starring role from Steven O’Brien, Tipp eventually came through by 3-9 to 1-11. Indeed the visitors led briefly with 10 minutes to go before Tipperary pulled through. All told, there wasn’t a whole lot between the sides in Thurles.

If anything now, Waterford will see next Saturday’s encounter as a real opportunity to turn the tables on a weakened outfit, both in personnel and mindset after shipping three heavy defeats in successive games. Having come close in the Munster championship game, Ephie Fitzgerald will have his side well motivated for the win. Tipperary, on returning to the scene of their greatest triumph under David Power in the Munster final of 2020, will have to dig extra deep to come out on top this time.

With little more than pride at stake now between two sides who have only managed to win against each other or London in 2023, it is a chance to perhaps finish a forgetful year with a rare victory. Anything beyond that would be unexpected, and as to whether it would be a bonus, in the year that it has been for both, one could argue either way.