Tipperary football champions drew inspiration from being written off

The fact that they had been written off in a lot of quarters, “including our own quarter,” provided motivation for Clonmel Commercials when they beat Nemo Rangers in last weekend's Munster Club Senior Football Championship quarter-final at Páirc Uí Chaoimh, according to manager Tommy Morrissey.

“We said to ourselves ‘hold on a minute, people are questioning what we can do.’

“We’re a footballing team, Nemo Rangers are a footballing team, it’s a big, wide open pitch. We knew we would stay with them.

“Absolutely, I wouldn’t have said that (seven points) was going to be difference in the scoreline, but things just went right for us as well.

“In the inner dressing room we knew that performance was in us, but there’s knowing it and then doing it, and the guys did it. As a management team we’re absolutely thrilled for them because we know there are players in that dressing room made to perform like that and they did it, it’s brilliant to see.”

Following on from his comment before the game that his team would have no fear travelling to Cork, Tommy Morrissey said “we didn’t have any fear, and we were written off.

“People were telling us we were only playing for 15 or 20 minutes in the Tipperary club championship. The hardest championship you’ll win is your own club championship. Every team, they know each other, they’re friends with each other, you’re at a little bit of a disadvantage.

“But when you come down to Cork, you go to Limerick or Clare, there’s a little less knowledge of individuals and what they can do on the day, so that was to our advantage.

“We said it last week that what we needed was an eight out of ten performance, minimum, from Seamus (Kennedy), Michael (Quinlivan), Colman (Kennedy), Jack (Kennedy), Conal (Kennedy) and Jason (Lonergan).

“Every one of them gave ten out of ten performances. When that happens, any team playing us is under pressure.”

The manager also paid tribute to the younger players.

“As a management team this year we made a decision that new blood was needed, and we knew the potential of that new blood.

“James Morris, Tadhg Condon, Cathal Deely, they are all exceptional payers, all inter-county standard, and to perform like they did today against one of the best clubs in the country shows just how good they are.

"We felt that Nemo had put a huge amount into the county final. Finbarr's were hot favourites, and we came and watched that game. We studied it in depth, and in the last couple of weeks we said to ourselves that Nemo are going to bring that intensity to it, but we said we can match that, and we did do  that.

"That was the number one agenda, forget about the football, bring the intensity to it and that's what the boys did."

The Clonmel team are now preparing for the Munster semi-final against Newcastle West on Sunday week, November 27.

Meanwhile, Nemo Rangers manager Paul O’Donovan, reflecting on their Cork county final win over St. Finbarr’s, stated “I don’t know what makes a team on form one day and not on form the next day. I am not sure what it is. Maybe we need to play the Barrs again.

“The (junior) hurling didn’t help us. There is no doubt about that. I don’t want that to be a headline, but we had six days of preparation (between the previous weekend’s county junior hurling quarter-final and the Commercials game).

“Certainly, we could have done with two weeks’ preparation.

“But that is the way it is.”