YOU have to walk almost to the steps that lead down to the Hogan Stand exit before you find Tipperary’s place in the hall of fame in Croke Park. They’re there, but the last of the Premier County’s four All-Ireland’s was back in 1920 and on Sunday they take on Mayo in their first semi-final since 1935.
“There we are,” says full-back Alan Campbell after we locate Tipp, lodged between Kildare (1919) and Dublin (1921) on the way out of ‘Headquarters’ last week.
The affable Moyle Rovers clubman hangs around for a chat outside and we talk software development (his day job), football and the Olympics before he hops into his waiting taxi. On Sunday he’ll return with his game-face on.
“It was a great feeling after the Galway game,” said Campbell, looking back on Tipp’s 3-13 to 1-10 win over the Connacht champions and favourites in the quarter-final. In the aftermath of that game the Tipp players hung around on the pitch, struggling to come to terms with what they’d achieved.
“It’s mad, we didn’t know how to deal with it because we are used to the fans coming on to the field,” said Campbell.
“After every game we’d be surrounded by the usual few hundred that we’d have at our games and we’d know all of them, so we didn’t know what to do when they didn’t come on and we just hung around. It was a good feeling, a lot of them were our families and we knew them so we enjoyed those few minutes.”
Since then, Tipperary’s Gaels turned their attention to the caman code and the hurlers didn’t let the county down, coming from behind to sink Galway (again) last Sunday with late goals from John O’Dwyer and John McGrath.
The team included former footballer Seamus Kennedy, who had thrown in his lot with the hurlers this season. So too has Steven O’Brien while Colin O’Riordan was lost to the Sydney Swans.
“Colin is having a great experience over there and he’s probably a bit homesick when he sees what’s going on, but he has a great opportunity,” said Campbell.
“Seamus went to the hurling and he has his Munster medal so he’s doing well and it’ll be the same for Steven; he just has to put a year under his belt and next year he might get the breakthrough.
“It was well documented that players left, but we got players in as well,” added Campbell.
“Bill Maher (an All-Ireland minor winner in 2011) came in after the League and his impact has been huge – that hasn’t been said enough. He was hurling last year so he wasn’t with the panel, but his addition was huge and perhaps a turning point in the season.”
To compound the losses to other codes, there were the retirements of stalwarts who soldiered on in the lower leagues for years in front of paltry crowds and taken annual hidings off Cork or Kerry in the Munster Championship. Men like Brian Mulvihill, Barry Grogan, Andrew Morrissey who deserved to be part of this run, but missed out.
“Those lads were around a long time and put so much work into Tipp football that you’d feel for them,” said Campbell.
“They just decided that they couldn’t do one more year, they had work commitments and various things coming at them so you’d understand why they had to step away but you’d feel for them as well.”
The loss of those players makes Tipp’s run to the last four all the more remarkable.
The county has been making great strides in football - 2011 All-Ireland minor champions and finalists again last season, Munster U21 champs in 2010 and last year and minor winners in 2011 and 2012 – but the lure of hurling is ever-present. Campbell played the caman code up to minor level but always felt more suited to football - but plenty go the other way.
“It’s tough in every county, there’s pulling factors whether it be rugby or soccer or hurling in our case,” he said.
“There’s plenty of the hurlers that are very good footballers and it would be great to have them but we have to try and fight on two fronts.
“We’re trying to do the best we can and I think there’s loads of potential there. I don‘t think it’s realised yet but we’re trying our best to fulfil it.
“There’s Munster U21 medals there, there’s a good few lads who have won
Munsters and beaten the likes of Kerry. When the first Munster U21 was won (2010) they lost to a Donegal team who had a lot of players who won that All-Ireland.
“Last year the U21s lost to Tyrone in an All-Ireland final we have had minor teams contesting All-Ireland finals and winning them, so there’s plenty of medals in the
pockets of our lads. They’re used to being in finals and winning them and beating
Kerry. We’re in an All-Ireland semi now so who knows?”
The man who has got them there is Liam Kearns. At the start of the season the Kerry native had to patch up a panel and instil belief into new faces and regulars that the Tipperary dream wasn’t as far away as it might have seemed. Campbell says Kearns has built on the work of the men who went before him.
“For me anyway, and I think most of the lads would say, the work started back six or seven years ago with John Evans,” he said.
“He got the lads up to Division Two and that kind of got the ball rolling. Peter Creedon did great work as well. We reached the last 12 twice with him and it was just another step to get to maybe the last aspect right, or the next aspect right, so he certainly has brought on a good backroom staff as well. It's very professional, it always was, and luckily he’s got us to the next step this year.”
Kearns’ Tipp haven’t ground it out with men behind the ball to get here. On the contrary, they’ve played a refreshing brand of attacking football that saw them beat Cork on the way to a Munster final showdown with Kerry. Inspired by full-forward, Michael Quinlivan, they’ve racked up 10-74 in five games and conceded 9-67.
“We work on our aspects in defence but we work to our strengths too and if we feel
that we can out-score the team that might be something that we do,” said Campbell.
“We know we’ve got good calibre in the forwards, but I don’t take it as an insult when they say Tipperary are defending badly because it’s more of the whole team as a
group.
“We’re all in it together and we set up some of the attacks and we concede from turnovers up in the forwards. It’s a team effort and if we score loads then we take solace in the defence and if you look back at all our games defenders have scored in most of them.
“We’d prefer to concede a good few scores than to be a blanket defence and not enjoy the football – it’s better to be going for it and everyone getting forward.”
The contrast between them and Mayo is start. The westerners have been at this stage for the last five years while Tipp are walking in a football wonderland.
“Mayo have no shortage of stars,” says Campbell.
“If we try to focus all on Cillian O’Connor then they’ll have another lad there ready and waiting to do the scoring so we have to get the balance right and focus on all of their players.
“Lee Keegan is scoring from defence as well so we can’t get hung up on any one player in particular. They’re all high quality players so we’ll just have to try and work on a system to nullify them and get scores ourselves.”