David Power: Tipperary must start from scratch to be competitve again

David Power believes Tipperary football must embark on another ten-year project to recapture the heights of the past decade.

The Premier manager led his county to a historic Munster title in his first year in charge but he has found the backward steps since then tough to take.

It wasn't an old team that made that breakthrough in 2020, either, but they have been scattered across America and Australia, while others have been injured, retired, or opted out.

"It’s very, very tough to take," said Power ahead of their Munster SFC opener against Waterford on Sunday.

"2020 was my first season and I was hoping that we could grow and be challenging maybe in a higher division in the league and maybe challenging again for a Munster championship but unfortunately, look, we’re not in that position.

"It’s for various reasons. Lads have gone travelling, lads are working, there’s been retirements. Brian Fox, Philip Austin, they’ve all been savage leaders and to lose all them on top of the fellas that are not available to us at the minute, it’s very, very hard to take."

Since 2020, Tipperary have won one championship match, against this weekend's opponents, and yoyoed between Divisions 3 and 4 of the league.

Power points out that of the team that closed out their spring campaign with defeat to Westmeath, only three (Jimmy Feehan, Kevin Fahey, and Colm O’Shaughnessy) started that Munster triumph.

Two more (Alan Campbell and Bill Maher) will instead be lining out for New York against Leitrim on Saturday.

"No team, even Dublin, Kerry, could really sustain that because you’re missing serious players," reflected Power. "You just can’t really sustain those losses."

The underage success that peaked with the 2011 All-Ireland minor title has diminished