Tipp county board - anti football

[ck]

The Tipp county board insist on playing a full round of club c/ship fixtures 24hours after they beat Antrim in the qualifers. That's 6 days ahead of their next round qualifier with Down. Croke Park had to step in to stop them.
This matched to the fact that Antrim had way more supporters in Thurles than Tipp had last weekend.

This all against a backdrop of Tipp football being on an all time high.

[sheamy]

Granted the issue you highlight seems strange and there may or may not be more to it. However, how did Tipp football get into the healthy state it is in were it not backed? Is it a case of a football board within a wider board? The football development model in the county is second to none and well resourced. That didn't fall out of the sky.

[Syferus]

You'd really wonder if Tipp didn't just luck into some very talented coaching officers. Money at underage isn't much of an object - ourselves and Cavan are well able to perform without all that much monetery resources. You won't get away with a blase attitude at senior, though.

The support in the stands for all of their football teams is abysmal. Politics will nip the flower in the bud quick enough if the board isn't on-side.

[Gold]

The Tipp county board insist on playing a full round of club c/ship fixtures 24hours after they beat Antrim in the qualifers. That's 6 days ahead of their next round qualifier with Down. Croke Park had to step in to stop them.
This matched to the fact that Antrim had way more supporters in Thurles than Tipp had last weekend.
This all against a backdrop of Tipp football being on an all time high.

Official attendence was 2500 odd. With kids paying free though i'd say there was near 3500. I'd say only 500 were from Tipp.
They've done ok beateing 3 div 3 teams but tbh we should have beaten them, just couldnt score and missing our regular free taker.

What they're doing at minor is good but must be a combination of good players at the one age and coaching structures--not just coaching structures.

Still though they make some sound with their 'Tipp, Tipp, Tipp' weird one sylabelled chant.

[ck]

If they had 500 in Thurles then I hope their subs are noisey in Mullingar cos they'll need them V Down.

[Gold]

The Tipp team ran out of the tunnel first before the game --there wasnt so much as one clap, cheer or 'up Tipp' --not one. They were sat on the photo bench before any of us noticed they were out.

It was like Antrim in the Div 4 final v Sligo in Longford in 09 before the bandwagon. Embarrassing.

Rarely are you at an Antrim away game when the Antrim fans are making far more noise than the opposition.

As for Down fans--they're unreal --they outnumbered us i'd say 10 to 1 at Casement in qualifiers last year. Will be some lift for Down if they get a good crowd after defeat at weekend.

[seafoid]

There was outrage on the board a few months ago over Kilkenny not giving respect to the big ball.
If Tipp fans can't be arsed whose fault is it ?

[tommysmith]

There was outrage on the board a few months ago over Kilkenny not giving respect to the big ball.
If Tipp fans can't be arsed whose fault is it ?

Hard to know, sure you cant force people to go to games if they are not interested.

Alot of people are getting it tough money wise also and maybe they are keeping what they have for supporting the hurlers.

[ck]

Support is one thing and it can be justified, but for your own board to fix CHAMPIONSHIP fixtures 24hrs after a super win in the qualifiers and 6 days ahead of a massive game against the All-Ireland finalists of 2010 then it all smacks of a "we couldnt give a sh*te" attitude.
Fair point raised above in that the support for football must be there somewhere given the underage success they have had but sadly I cant see that transferring to senior should the board continue to be so short sighted.

Regardless of everything, if Tipp win next Sunday (and they could!) then they will be heralded as the success story of this years football c/ship!

[tommysmith]

Support is one thing and it can be justified, but for your own board to fix CHAMPIONSHIP fixtures 24hrs after a super win in the qualifiers and 6 days ahead of a massive game against the All-Ireland finalists of 2010 then it all smacks of a "we couldnt give a sh*te" attitude.
Fair point raised above in that the support for football must be there somewhere given the underage success they have had but sadly I cant see that transferring to senior should the board continue to be so short sighted.

Regardless of everything, if Tipp win next Sunday (and they could!) then they will be heralded as the success story of this years football c/ship!

Why dont you get you're club to bring this up at the next county board meeting its all well and good talking about it here but thats the place to discuss it.

[Syferus]

Support is one thing and it can be justified, but for your own board to fix CHAMPIONSHIP fixtures 24hrs after a super win in the qualifiers and 6 days ahead of a massive game against the All-Ireland finalists of 2010 then it all smacks of a "we couldnt give a sh*te" attitude.
Fair point raised above in that the support for football must be there somewhere given the underage success they have had but sadly I cant see that transferring to senior should the board continue to be so short sighted.

Regardless of everything, if Tipp win next Sunday (and they could!) then they will be heralded as the success story of this years football c/ship!

Why dont you get you're club to bring this up at the next county board meeting its all well and good talking about it here but thats the place to discuss it.

Sure why would the Sligo board want to be giving Tipp a competitive advantage? 

[Onlooker]

I could bore you all to death talking about this.  For the record, the exact position was that there were 3 Senior Football Championship matches fixed for Sunday and 1 Senior Hurling Championship match fixed for Monday evening that would have involved 7 of the 17 players that played against Antrim.  I don't know if these fixtures were made because Fixtures Committee thought that Tipp would lose to Antrim or because they thought that there would be 2 weeks before the next round.   As far as I know, ck is correct in stating that it was the intervention of Croke Park that got the decision made to call off the games.   I don't know how this actually came about, but I was told the players (or their rep.) got on to the GPA and that Dessie Farrell got on to Padraig Duffy in Croke Park and he persuaded the Tipperary County Board to call off the 4 games.    That may or may not be what happened, but I do know the games were called off and the County Board issued a statement that made a reference to concern for the players (burn out etc.) and said that was the reason for the postponements.   Gold is probably right to say that there were in the region of 3,500 at the match, because of under age spectators being admitted free.  Perhaps he also heard that a number of people from both Antrim and Tipperary got into the terrace free when some one discovered a gate that was left open in error.  Well done to whoever spotted that gate.  I can not agree with his figure of 500 people from Tipp at the game.  It was considerably more than that.  As to the cheers when the teams came out, it is a fact that a lot of the Antrim people were in the ground much earlier than Tipp and both teams were out on the field before I went into the stand.   Support for the Tipp senior football team is small and the minors would probably draw a bigger crowd.  In fairness to Tipp people there are a number of reasons for the small support last Saturday and cost is one of them.  There are 6 Tipperary teams still standing in this year's Championship and in the last 2 months various Tipp teams have played Championship matches in Thurles (4 times), Cork (3 times), and Limerick (twice).  Before that the Minor Footballers played away matches in Tralee and Cork.  Trips to Mullingar, Ennis and Croke Park have still to come.  This is brilliant for all of us, but the more casual fans can not be expected to get to all or most of the games.  People have to make choices.  It is also true that there is zero interest in football in the town of Thurles and many parts of North Tipperary.  I have always been of the opinion that Tipp would get bigger crowds if they played most of their football matches in Clonmel.  However, players and management prefer Thurles and results in the last couple of years suggest that they are right to play there.    It is also true that there are many people in the County Board and other Boards who would describe themselves as "hurling men" and who would be at best indifferent to football.   Tipp's underage structures are very good and are driven by committed people and it does appear that a bunch of talented young footballers and hurlers have arrived on the under age scene and the increase in support for football that so many of us would love to see will come as a result of the success being acheived by these young players.  Then again, if Tipp were to beat Down on Saturday, the bandwagon would start to roll and it is absolutely certain that more Tipp people would go to football match in Croke Park than in Thurles.  Sorry if I went on a bit, but there have been so many lean years for Tipp football that we are enjoying the success of the minors in particular more than most counties would.

[rrhf]

Tipp tipp tipp
Down down down

[ck]

A solid reply by onlooker which puts some persepctive on it all.

Good luck to Tipp this weekend, I for one will be rooting for them and am considering making the journey east for a look. Down are no world beaters despite the big reputations

[Premier Emperor]

Tipperary county board are strongly in favour of promoting football.
Remember this is county that has won 26 All Irelands in hurling and traditionally considered one of the weakest football counties.
The easy option would be to pump all resources into hurling and let football wither on the vine like Kilkenny do.

The reason for the low attendances is because Thurles is a good distance away from the football strongholds in the South of the county.