Acheson hails Tipp youngsters

Tipperary midfielder Peter Acheson says the unavailability of 13 members of last year's squad may now be seen as "a blessing in disguise".

The Premier County beat the Connacht champions Galway 3-13 to 1-10 to progress to their first All-Ireland semi-final in 81 years on Sunday, and Acheson says the young players manager Liam Kearns has brought into the Tipp panel have revitalised the team.

"If you put odds on us, it would have been 1,000/1, 2000/1 after the lads dropped off the team," said Acheson

"We were left with a very young squad – I’m the fourth oldest player and I am only 26. The young fellas are just brave out and go for it, which suits our type of play.

"Jimmy Feehan and Colm O’Shaughnessy are only 19, 20 years of age. They just drive at lads and it is brilliant to see. It suits our style of play. Everyone stepped up to the plate, even the older lads have given that extra 10 or 15 per cent at training.

"We are fitter, faster, and believe in ourselves more than we ever did. Maybe it was a blessing in disguise."

Tipp's first win over Galway since 1904 and first at Croke Park since 1922 sets up a semi-final meeting with Tyrone or Mayo on 21 August, and manager Liam Kearns hopes his players finally get the credit their All-Ireland performances deserve.

"Nobody gave us any credit for beating Cork [in the Munster semi-final in June]," he said.

"It was all about Cork and how could Cork lose and they have so much talent and so much behind them and they’re winning All-Ireland under-21s and to lose to Tipperary is a disgrace. We got no credit at all for that win.

"We got a bit more for the [Round 4A] Derry game but again, we were boxed off as part of the romance, ourselves and Clare.

"I told the lads that the script was written here and we were supposed to drift away off after our day in the sun. But we weren’t going to go with the script, we’re here to win and that was the bottom line. That’s it. We fell we’re due a bit of respect now."