Tipperary football manager Liam Kearns is confident that his squad will be even stronger next year despite the loss of key midfielder Peter Acheson.
The Premier County were the surprise package of the 2016 Championship, shocking Cork in Munster before falling to Kerry in the provincial decider by 10 points in Killarney.
They quickly regrouped to end Derry’s interest in the season and saw off the challenge of Galway in the quarter-finals in one of the attacking exhibitions of the season, before Mayo put paid to an unlikely All-Ireland Final appearance.
Goalkeeper Evan Comerford, defender Robbie Kiely and forwards Michael Quinlivan and Conor Sweeney joined the influential Acheson on the list of All Star nominees on the back of their ground-breaking season.
Kearns will have to plan without Acheson who has departed for Dubai and while the former Limerick manager admits that “guys like him are hard to replace”, he believes he will have a stronger panel to work with for the 2017 campaign.
“That’s the challenge now,” he told RTÉ Sport when asked if the Premier can match their exploits of the 2016 season.
“We have got to back up what we did this year. We’re certainly going to have a bigger squad and more depth to our squad based on the research I have done so far this year.
“I expect that we will have a stronger squad. Having said that, one of our marquee players Peter Acheson, is gone to Dubai and we’ve got to hope that he will come back.”
Kearns was speaking at the draw for the 2017 Championship where his team will meet the winners of Cork and Waterford for the right to play in the Munster final.
The Rebels will be heavily fancied to get past Waterford and face the team that ended their provincial interest with a 3-15 to 2-16 victory in Thurles.
Played in front of just 2,734 spectators, the Premier held their nerve with two injury-time placed balls from Kevin O’Halloran sealing a first over Cork in senior championship football since 1944.
Kearns is expecting no shortage of motivation from their potential opponents, though does believe that Waterford will look to cause an upset of their own.
“I’ve no doubt Cork will be gunning for us,” he said.
“I’m sure we surprised them this year. That element of surprise will be gone now.
“In fairness, when the draw was made, I said that Tom McGlinchy [Waterford manager] will have other ideas and Waterford will have other ideas, but I suppose most people would expect Cork to come through.”
With expectations rising in the county, Kearns admits that challenge is to at least match their progress over the last 12 months.
“We have set the bar high for ourselves. We’ve got to get back to a Munster Final and back to the last eight in Croke Park and try to get into the last four and that won’t be easy.”
