Clonmel Commercials the team they all have to beat in Tipperary football championship

So after 24 group games in the FBD Insurance County Senior Football Championship - too many of a non-competitive nature - the eight quarter-finalists are now known in the pursuit of the O’Dwyer Cup for 2023. And, of course, so too do we know the four teams who will battle it out for just one single pass to remain at senior level for 2024.
The four quarter-final games down for decision on the weekend of September 23/24 are:

JK Brackens v Killenaule
Commercials v Ballina
Upperchurch/Drombane v Kilsheelan/Kilcash
Moyle Rovers v Loughmore/ Castleiney

Also on the same weekend are the two relegation play-off games with a 75% West Tipperary flavour:
Eire Og Annacarty v Arravale Rovers
Moycarkey/Borris v Rockwell Rovers

Last weekend’s third round of games focused the minds of a few clubs, particularly Moyle Rovers and Kilsheelan/Kilcash, who both started Sunday with zero points on the league table. Needing to win to avoid relegation play-offs both managed to do just that and more. Their respective wins over Ballyporeen and Eire Og Annacarty helped both move up the table and into the last eight. However, with Moyle Rovers to face Loughmore/ Castleiney, and Kilsheelan/Kilcash to play Upperchurch/Drombane - last year’s county finalists and unbeaten to date this year - both South teams will need to show huge improvement in form to progress.
Concern on the Scotch Road prior to Sunday’s game against Ballyporeen was so great that Peter Acheson, former Tipperary senior captain, was brought home from Dubai - once again - to help them get past a Ballyporeen side who were without their own former Tipperary captain, Conor Sweeney.
Kilsheelan did just enough to overcome Annacarty but it might have come at a price as they needed to replace four injured players by half-time, including the very dependable Paul Maher. Will this prove to be a pyrrhic if not final win for the Suirsiders in 2023?
Templemore side JK Bracken’s are motoring along nicely this year in football - even in the hurlers aren’t - and three wins from three in the group stages leaves the Mid Tipperary outfit topping Group 1. They will face another dual club Killenaule for a place in the last four. Killenaule defeated Cahir last Saturday, and on a good day in the right mind, can be a very decent team against any opposition.
Incidentally, are we witnessing the tectonic plates of Tipperary football shifting somewhat, with three Mid sides topping their groups and three West Tipperary clubs now fighting for their lives to preserve their senior status?
There is no doubt, with football followers and with bookmakers, that Clonmel Commercials are once again the team that they all have to beat in this year’s county championship. The 3/1-on favourites with Paddy Power’s face 16/1 shots Ballina in the quarter-finals. Even allowing for the rising graph of the north Tipp club who now have a fair splattering of county senior and underage experience, one cannot look beyond Commercials the next day.
On Sunday last they annihilated Drom/Inch by 3-19 to 0-4 to top their group (72 points for 21 points against). But that scoreline in itself raises question marks about the whole senior club set up in Tipperary and adds justification to the action of the County Board in reducing the number of senior teams from 16 to 14 for next year, and from 14 to 12 the following year.
Drom/Inch are a very decent football team on the right day and they beat Kilsheelan by a point in their opening group game. Clonmel Commercials then defeated Kilsheelan by a point in Round 2. So how do Clonmel Commercials end up putting 24 points into Drom/Inch on the final day?
But that result alone is just one of the many lop-sided results that have been coming up too frequently in senior football in Tipperary for too long. So yes, let clubs be good enough to play senior football - or, more realistically for some, WANT to play senior football. And if you can’t or don’t really want to, then don’t. Reducing the number of teams at the top grade down to 12 is a move in the right direction.
While the eight quarter- finalists can for now dream of lifting the cup towards the end of next month, for four other clubs there is a huge battle ahead to retain senior status.
Bearing in mind that three teams will go down, and another three teams will lose senior status next year, it is a worrying time for some of the lesser clubs. Also when you take into account that only one club will be coming up from intermediate every year into the future, it could well be a long time, if ever, before some of these relegated clubs kick a senior football again.
But definitely all is not good out west. Aherlow were relegated last year and two years prior to that another proud club, Galtee Rovers/St Pecaun’s lost that badge of honour. At least two more will go before the season is out, and possibly three if Moycarkey/Borris can best the west.
The semi-final between Arravale Rovers and Eire Og will cough up a big casualty either way. Eire Og lost their senior hurling status 12 months ago. Will their footballers suffer similarly now? This great club with a very small band of brothers have been punching above their weight for years. They have it all to do now. The Tipp Town side find themselves in unfamiliar territory and one would imagine are too big to go down. It would be a sad day for a town of its size to have neither a senior hurling or football team. But sentiment isn’t enough.
Rockwell Rovers were promoted from intermediate ranks three years ago and have been doing ok since, winning back-to-back Tom Cusack Cups, but now are suddenly in the lurch. Again it’s a very small parish. Moycarkey/Borris are senior since 2019 and will want to stay there too. Interesting days.