by Acting PRO Joe Bracken
ALLIANZ FOOTBALL LEAGUE DIVISION 3
TIPPERARY V WEXFORD
The Tipperary football team completed their football league campaign with a one score loss to Wexford in Round 7 of the league in Clonmel last Sunday on a score-line of 2-15 to 2-12. With safety already secured it afforded management an opportunity to utilise the panel ahead of the opening round in the championship. That Munster quarter-final fixture will take place in Semple Stadium Thurles on Sunday May 31st.
MUNSTER MINOR HURLING
This Wednesday, April 8th, the Tipperary minor hurlers line out against Waterford in the Electric Ireland Munster Minor Hurling Championship Quarter-Final in Semple Stadium at 7pm. With a huge amount of interest in the side this year Liam Cahill and his management team of Seán Corbett, John Sheedy, TJ Ryan and Michael Bevans will be anxious to see their side hit the ground running and hopefully come out on top against the Déise lads. The referee is Johnny Murphy from Limerick. The winners go on to meet Clare in the Munster semi-final on July 1st, while the losers will play the losers play-off game on Wednesday, May 6th v Cork or Limerick.
MUNSTER U21 FOOTBALL FINAL
Continuing a busy week in Semple Stadium, Tipperary play Cork in the EirGrid GAA Football Under 21 Munster Championship Final on this Thursday, April 9th, at 7.30pm. Having overcome Clare with relative ease in the semi-final the task facing this Tipperary will be huge and won’t have gone astray on them. With senior stars like the calibre of Ian Fahey, Steven O’Brien, Liam Casey and Evan Comerford among others lining out, there won’t be any shortage of desire within the squad as they set out to put a halt to the Rebels gallop. Manager Tommy Toomey and his selectors of Mick O’Loughlin, Michael McGeehan, Peter Creedon and Eoghan Cooney have a wonderful wealth of knowledge on the side-line and will be endeavouring to find the key that will allow their side to unhinge this Cork outfit. The referee for this final is Seán Joy from Kerry. The winners go on to meet the Leinster champions, Dublin, in the All-Ireland semi-final on April 18th.
It would give a tremendous boost to both the minor hurlers and U21 footballers to see as many as possible in Semple Stadium on the respective evenings to shout on the blue and gold and to give the teams a welcome shot in the arm of vocal home support.
MUNSTER MINOR FOOTBALL
Tipperary will play Waterford in the Electric Ireland Munster Minor Football Championship Quarter-Final on Wednesday next April 15th, at 7pm in Semple Stadium.
COUNTY HURLING CHAMPIONSHIPS
The opening round in the Clean Ireland County Senior Hurling Championship got underway last weekend with some interesting results. The remaining ties go ahead this weekend. The Clean Ireland County Intermediate Hurling Championship is also underway, so please check fixtures and results guide for updates or alternatively check the Tipperary GAA website.
COUNTY FOOTBALL LEAGUES
Both the county adult and minor football leagues continue this weekend also, a check on the fixtures guide will keep you up to date on events in both of those leagues.
GAA PATRON
The newly appointed Archbishop of Cashel and Emly, Dr. Kieran O’Reilly was recently invited to replace Dr. Dermot Clifford as the new GAA Patron. Having accepted the invitation, we congratulate Dr. Kieran on taking up this long standing tradition and wish him well in the role, wouldn’t it be a fitting occasion then if he was welcoming home Liam McCarthy in September in his inaugural year, let’s hope so. Sincere thanks to Dr. Dermot Clifford for his many years as Patron and for the great ambassador he was. We wish him well in his retirement and thank him for his support of the GAA in his time as Patron.
CROKE PARK APPOINTMENTS
While appointments to various Croke Park committees have yet to be completed the following from Tipperary have been confirmed: Liam Sheedy and Seán Nugent – Coiste Bainisti; Ger Ryan – Chairperson Medical, Scientific and Welfare Committee: John Costigan – C.C.C.C.; Paudie O’Neill – Chairperson of the Hurling Development Committee; Ed Donnelly – Communications Committee and Seán Nugent – Croke Park Teoranta.
WARWICKSHIRE TIPP CONNECTIONS
Congratulations to a former Drom & Inch player Donnacha Kennedy who was all smiles last Saturday, April 4th, in Ratoath as the Birmingham based Drom native and now John Mitchel’s clubman had just helped Warwickshire to win the Allianz Hurling League Roinn 3B 2015 title after a 1-15 to 2-10 victory over Longford. Donnacha lined out at full back and was a tower of strength from start to finish in what was Warwickshire’s greatest victory since their Lory Meagher Cup final success against the same opposition in 2013 when Donnacha was also involved.
Also lining out at midfield for Warwickshire was Oxford based Glengar/Cappawhite man Liam Reale who scored one of Warwickshire’s fifteen points. Liam is a member of the recently formed St. Declan’s club who were established last year. Well done to both players who like many exiles continue to proudly keep the Tipperary flag flying.
TIPPERARY GAA DRAW
The final Tipperary GAA Members Draw took place in the Glenview Lounge in Goatenbridge last Thursday night and what an eventful night it was. The Skoda Octavia went to Bob Hall, Graystown, Killenaule and the Skoda Fabia was won by Tom Comerford, Dundrum in the draw while the lotto was also won with the lucky winner being Denis Parker, Rathmartin, Nenagh with the Nenagh Eire Óg GAA Club. Congratulations to all the winners on the night – see full results on the website.
NEW TIPPERARY GAA DRAW
With the last draw now completed it’s that time of year again when we focus on the new draw, so we need to start rolling out the new draw immediately after that as the first draw is scheduled by the draw committee for Fri May 22nd.The Draw Committee have introduced major increases in commission as follows, which should prove very attractive to clubs;
50% up to 200 members,
60% for members between 200 and 300,
70% for members after 300
All this and still retaining a €500,000 Prize Fund
Clubs should immediately attend to the following;
Confirm whoever is acting as your club draw co-ordinator for the new draw.
Decide on the layout of your clubs personalized brochure with pictures of winning teams, draw prize winners, club development, team mentors details and introduction text. This info should be returned to Co. Draw Co-Ordinator Siobhan Barrett in Lár na Pairce over the next seven days at email reception.tipperary@gaa.ie
Do a thorough examination of your draw membership database and correct errors with names, addresses and promoters. Also be aware of draw members who have passed away since last year so make sure to amend these before the new return cards/receipts are printed and avoid causing distress to bereaved families. This should be done immediately and email amendments to Siobhan before she goes to print next week.
Remember this is “The Tipperary Clubs Draw” and it’s up to every club to contribute to its survival. It has served the county well for 27 years and has survived very recent tough economic times. Now is a great opportunity for all our clubs to grow its draw membership and bring in much needed revenue with no risk or no cost.
The Draw Committee and the Co. Board are looking forward to a renewed effort by all clubs to restore “our” County Draw to its former greatness.
POST PRIMARY COMPETITIONS
Commiserations to Thurles CBS who lost out to St. Kieran’s Kilkenny in the Masita All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Croke Cup Senior ‘A’ Hurling Final last Saturday April 4th, in Semple Stadium, Thurles. Despite losing on a one score deficit 1-12 to 1-15 the Thurles lads tried valiantly to the end but were unable to get the better of the Kilkenny lads.
This Saturday, April 11th, the focus of attention switches to Croke Park where the Abbey School Tipperary take on St. Mary’s Academy CBS of Carlow in the Masita GAA All-Ireland Post Primary Schools Drummond Cup ‘B’ Football Final at 1.30pm. Having come away from Mullingar with a narrow one point victory in the semi-final the Abbey lads will know they need to play to their full potential again in the hope of climbing the steps in the Hogan Stand. Best wishes to the team, management and school then, happy in the knowledge that the support of the county will be behind you on the day.
TIPPERARY SUPPORTERS CLUB GOLF CLASSIC
Your support is requested for this the 30th Tipperary Supporters Club Annual Golf Classic at the Tipperary Golf and Country Club, Dundrum on Thursday May 21st and Friday May 22nd, 2015. Many of our team participants have been with us since 1986 and we hope you can enter a team again this year. This is one of our major annual fund raising events and we want to continue our support to our management and team as they bid to win the All-Ireland title this year. All funds will be used to defray costs for looking after the team preparation for this year’s championship.
Please mail your team entry, to John Tierney, Chairman, Tipperary Supporters Club at 105 Laraghcon, Lucan Village, Co. Dublin or email to johntierney105@gmail.com
RULE CHANGES
A timely reminder to all that this Saturday April 11th, sees the implementation of the new playing rules as voted in at Congress. The rules were deferred to this date to give players, referees and administrators an opportunity to familiarise themselves with the final version of the revised rules before they become operative.
With that in mind it is interesting to note that those games played in the first round of the Clean Ireland County Senior Hurling Championship last weekend were under the “old rules”, while this weekend the remaining first round games will be played under the new rules.
TIPPERARY SUPPORTERS CLUB MEMBERSHIP 2015
The Tipperary Supporters Club membership for 2015 is now available and continues to grow.
Membership is €30 per person, unchanged since 2006.
Anybody who would like to take some Supporters Club memberships is welcome to contact Supporters Club PRO, John Coman on 087-9087105 or by email at info@tippsupportersclub.com
TIPPERARY GAA SCENE
Information concerning all areas in the GAA will appear in this section in the future. If you wish to include any item of interest in future articles, please e-mail at pro.tipperary@gaa.ie on or before 3.00pm on Monday. Visit the Tipperary GAA web site at https://tipperary.gaa.ie to keep up to date with all the latest news in Tipperary GAA circles.
