Munster Football Final U17

There's a football revolution going on in Tipp at underage level. Tipp U17 won the Munster final at the weekend with 5 of the players that started and won the All-Ireland Minor Final on the team I think they have now won all the underage Munster titles this year, from U14, U15, U16 and now the U17 as well as the minor. The determined plan to win an All-Ireland senior football final before 2019 (1920 being our last win) is well and truly up-and-running. Mind you, they are just a skinny bunch of youngsters, so a lot of work to be done there yet. Can a county with no inter-county football pedigree win an All-Ireland with 7 years or are we being over-ambitious?

I hope this success is not at the expense of the underage hurlers though.

It depends on how they develop in the next few years I think, look at the Clare hurlers for example, they had a brilliant few underage teams a while back but they have not improvered at senior level to any great degree. I think they can do it but there is a chance they wont. If they did it would be a welcome change from the Cork-Kerry duopaly in Munster. As for the All-Ireland I feel they should concentrate on winning the Munster Championship first before thinking bigger.

I agree that the senior team has not improved, but it's not to the current senior team we are looking to - it's to this years minors and younger. If success is to come, it'll come from them. So far, the results have been impressive. They play the same brand of football from the youngest team right up to senior, so the transition from one age group to another is pretty seamless. It'll be interesting to watch them grow.

You know Irish, Clare have only played 6 championship games in 3 years. Not helping their development one bit. Something needs to change drastically with the championship setup.

Yeah it is a problem alright but it is not the sole reason for them failing to live up to expectations. Hopefully something will give in the near future with the county boards or, more likely, the players and they will force change to occur.

Maybe if they said a Munster champ in 7 year's that would be a better marker to aim for. I remeber Laois a few year's ago cleaning up at Minor and u21 and as far as I know they only won one Leinster senior out of that whole batch of player's. If Tipp can sustain the underage success for the next few year's and providing all theese player's stick with football then there is no reason why the should'nt be competing for a Munster title. A senior All ireland in 7 year's for a county that is not renound for football is a bit ambitious imo.

But surely if they can win Munster, an All-Ireland is in the bag.

Dub, weren't those Laois lads a bit too fond of partying?

bluemoda wrote:Dub, weren't those Laois lads a bit too fond of partying?

They could have been I have no idea, I do know there was a few of them that were very arrogant and very mouthy on the pitch.

Blue
Its only three years since I had the misfortune to be at a very wet and dismal league Division 3 final in Longford in which Tipp beat Down after extra time. While both teams went up Down got promotion while Tipp I think went stright back down again.

Did that team break up as I thought they were a fairly young team?.

Regarding progression from underage success to senior progression its almost always not a guarantee of success and huge numbers of succesful minor all ireland winners dont even make it to senior teams never mind successful senior teams.

If Tipp can put a team together there is no reason why they couldnt win Munster and a lot sooner than in seven years time. After the AI final it seemed tht there was doom and gloom about Kerry prospects over the short term. Unfortuntely I think Cork shot themselves this year and will be back strongly next year and for the next few years.

Ar aghaidh, your right in saying that Tipp have a pretty young senior team. When Tipp play the 1st game in the Munster championship (this year it was Kerry - they lost), the students on the panel then bugger off the the US to play for the summer. So Tipp have to put out a weakened team for the next game, which they duly lose and then they're out of the championship. The problem is attitude. They are only fullfilling fixtures. Manager John Evans has promised to deal with this, but it's hard to know what he can do if the players themselves have little interest/belief. That's why people are getting excited about the little Tipps. It's only year 3 of a 10 year plan and already we have a massive amount of success at underage. I think people sense a different attitude with these youngsters. Also, people outside Tipp forget/never knew, that football in Tipp is, and always was popular. Take a map of Tipp, draw a line straigh across the centre of the county, north of that line is hurling, south is football. Obviously, the real situation on the ground is not as crude as my description but you get the gist. Tipp have as many senior football teams as Kilkeeny have senior hurling teams and that's a suprise to a lot of people.

Didnt realise the big ball game was so prominent in Tipp. Evans has been manager for a few years now, is he kerry native or was that the last manager. It would add to the Munster championship to have another challenger. Do you think Evans is the right man for the job in the longer term.

Absolutely, no question and yes he is a Kerry native (he'a a retired detective, as far as I'm aware) County Board wanted to appoint him as director of football (paid) but HQ wouldn't allow it. While he is senior manager, he oversees all the underage teams. Previous CBs have a lot to answer for the neglect of football in a county steeped in club football. When we see fantastic underage results so soon, we can't help getting a littled excited about the future. They started with the youngest and we fans, well, we'll just wait for them to grow up.