Colleges Drama
By Noel Dundon (Tipperary Media)
The Fitzgibbon Cup has really taken a grip in recent years and has become almost as important as the Allianz National Hurling League in terms of prestige and standing. Can the same be said of the Sigerson Cup, I wonder?
Certainly from a Tipperary perspective, we have had many representatives on the winning teams over the last number of years and invariably those representatives find themselves in the county teams, whether at underage level or in the senior panel.
That’s a real measure of the kind of standard at which the Fitzgibbon Cup and Sigerson Cup are being played – you really need to be featuring as an inter county player to get your place on the team in the bigger colleges.
So, it was very refreshing to see another sizeable Tipperary contingent in the final at the weekend with a number of clubs being represented – Joe Caesar of Holycross Ballycahill deservedly winning the Man of the Match award for his exploits in the decider against UL as he helped Mary Immaculate to the crown.
The Fitzgibbon and Sigerson Cups are watched very closely by the inter county management teams and they obviously rate the competitions very highly. The free weekend from league activity afforded to the third level finals from the GAA fixture makers helps to give the finals a free run or publicity and it has been tremendous to see those games being streamed live so that anybody can watch them.
There have been some great finals down through the years and the 2024 final can be regarded as being up there with the best of them in terms of drama and tension as the final whistle approached.
Congratulations to the Mary I boys on a fine victory – to have achieved the success over their ‘noisy neighbours’ in UL added a cream and custard topping to the Fitzgibbon trifle for them.
London Leaves Footballers with much to do
Tipperary’s footballers escaped London with a share of the spoils on Sunday but that leaves them with much work to do in the remaining rounds of the Allianz National Football League. Ruislip is not a simple place to go to and Tipperary found a resilient bunch in the exiles who will be well pleased with the point they secured.
The result should not really be regarded as a poor one – it was not a defeat after all. But, it does mean that Tipperary will almost certainly have to stay unbeaten for the duration of the league and win most of their games if they are to remain in the shakeup for promotion. That’s a tall order really especially as the management team continues to integrate new players.
It will soon come to the point for them where they will have to make a decision on whether to go all out for points and really chase promotion hard; OR; stick with the process of bringing new blood into the fold.
Tipp have Laois next weekend followed by Waterford and Wexford (all at home) and Leitrim away in the final round. On the basis that you would hope to be winning your home games, Tipp have a great chance to put another six points on the board and that would really set them up for the final clash with Leitrim in Sean McDermott Park on March 24th. Let’s hope it will still be all to play for by then.
Hurlers host Westmeath
Liam Cahill will have another chance to look at players next weekend when the Westmeath hurlers come to Semple Stadium. The Ballingarry man has already stated that players will need to get game time in order to bring them back into the fold.
So, will we see some of the more experienced players getting a jersey for the first time this season? Noel McGrath, Dan McCormack, Jason Forde, Cathal Barrett, Barry Heffernan and Patrick Maher would all relish a run out – provided they are all fit – and the clash with Westmeath could be the perfect chance to reintroduce them. While Westmeath will not be expected to cause too many problems, there will still be a decent attendance in FBD Semple Stadium, one would expect.
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