Creditable Draw by Tipp Footballers

National Football League, Division 3:

Sligo 0-18; Tipperary 3-09

Tipperary footballers showed commendable heart and spirit to finish strongly and earn a 3-09 to 0-18 draw with Sligo at Markievicz Park yesterday. Sligo led by 0-18 to 2-08 with two minutes remaining but a late Alan Moloney goal, and a later point, ensured a share of the spoils. Following a tight first half, Sligo held a 0-10 to 2-03 interval lead, with Michael Quinlivan and Peter Acheson netting Tipperary goals and Acheson giving the visitors their second goal after converting a 22nd minute penalty. The sides were tied on four occasions after the restart and although Sligo kicked on with Niall Murphy and Kyle Cawley, impressive,Tipperary fought hard to carve out a draw.

Football in Tipperary is striving against the tide down the years. The county has had, and still has, great people who work hard to promote the game and try to produce teams of the best possible standard to compete in all grades of inter-county competitions. The county continues to produce players capable of holding their own with the best in the land. Many GAA clubs in the county contain individuals who attend divisional and county board meetings and their attitudes to Tipperary football are at best disinterest and cynicism and, in some cases, even hostility. I cannot understand how anyone with those attitudes could call themselves GAA or Tipperary people.

This year, the manager of the Tipperary minor hurling team has ruled that no player will be allowed to play minor football for Tipperary if the want to be included in the minor hurling panel — a new kind of ban — even if playing all grades of hurling and football with their clubs. Two leading members of the Tipperary senior football team were included in a hurling panel of 40 at the beginning of the National League thus denying the footballers the use of their services even though neither player was even listed among the subs on the hurling panel until yesterday when one of them was introduced four minutes from the final whistle of the defeat to Clare.