TSDL Premier League Preview:
Although there was a quick appetiser with the return of a round of Premier League games last weekend, the main course of the Tipperary Southern and District League is served up this coming weekend, and begins with one of the spiciest dishes on the menu. Newly crowned champions Peake Villa, will return to the scene of their league victory on Saturday night, when they play St Michael’s at Cooke Park in Tipperary town, in what is a highly anticipated game among Tipperary football fans. The Saint’s will be hurting going into the game, it being the first time in eight years they’ll be opening a season not as the reigning champions, but they’ll also be more than anxious to reclaim that crown.
Both teams have added new faces during the summer recess. The Saint’s probably more so, as they continue the transitioning of a new group of young players into the team, that they hope will produce the next generation of serial silverware winners. But they will also feel the loss of some of the mainstays on the past decade and a half. Villa have been there or thereabouts for the last couple of years, and even their own supporters will admit, had they not taken the title last season, it would have been seen as a bitter failure for the Thurles side. But winning just makes them hungrier and they will be anxious not to be seen as a one hit wonder, but looking to add a second title on the bounce to cement their reputation as kingpins in Tipperary, at least for now.
However, there are other teams in the Premier League who will feel it a little presumptuous that pundits may consider the title a two horse race. The two Clonmel sides along with Two Mile Borris and Bansha Celtic, will also put forward reasonable cases for themselves as potential championship contenders. In the case of Clonmel Town, they lead last years Premier League for much of the season, and will feel that they have added a year of grit and experience to a very young talented team, which puts them in better stead this time around. For Celtic, they were also just finding their feet after returning from a couple of seasons in the First Division, but will also have added Premier League experience, along with the boost of winning the Youths title for the first time in their history, giving them a blend of youth to add to some of the older heads on the team. Bansha Celtic and Two Mile Borris both showed last season, that they had the capacity to come up with some big results, but will need to find more consistency over the long slog of a full season, but after also concentrating over the past number of years on highly successful youth set ups, they might be dark horses as the season progresses. They will certainly not give up games easily, and could have a large bearing on where the title does end up, should thy not be successful themselves.
Wilderness Rovers did well last season to secure Premier League status after being promoted, but will now face the all important “second season syndrome”, where they will hope to consolidate their Premier League status, to build for seasons ahead. With so much competition for players in the Clonmel area, they are often a side that develops good young players, only to see them stolen away by some of the more illustrious sides in the town. They will have to keep as many of their high-performance players to stay in the league, but its likely to be a long tough road ahead. The final two teams making up the Premier League are the promoted sides, Cahir Park and Tipperary Town. There was nothing between these teams last season, when it took a promotion play off to decide who would take the title, but this year is likely to be tougher for both as they try to navigate the notoriously tougher Premier League. That said, both teams have recent experience of playing at the higher level and they will hope to put that in good stead over the next eight or so months.
TSDL First Division Preview:
Historically the First Division has tended to be the most competitive of all the Divisions in the TSDL, with nothing between the teams from top to bottom over what is a long and arduous season. And this years iteration looks like being no different with the Division returning to an eight team league and containing some very ambitious clubs, who’ll be vying for those coveted promotion spots back into the Premier League limelight. The pick of the opening weekends games will likely be the meeting at Green Lane of Old Bridge and Cashel Town, who’ll begin a season in the lower division for the first time in five or so years. The Bridge let themselves down in the league last year with poor consistency, but when they did get the cogs to click into place, they showed they were more than capable of beating anyone. That was really shown in their run to the Tipperary Cup final, where they gave Premier League kingpins St Michael’s a very uncomfortable night at times in Cahir. Cashel Town will be licking their wounds after their relegation, but will have put huge pre season work into the team, as well as welcoming up some very talented youth players.
St Michael’s second team has often provided the development stage for some gems that needed polishing before first team action, but they suffered the ignominy of finishing in the bottom two of last seasons league. They will not be content with that kind of display and will want to provide strong opposition to a Vee Rovers side who were relegated from the Premier League without winning a game, and who will be desperate to get back to winning ways in the short term. But will look for wins for different reasons, but will provide plenty to watch for their respective sets of supporters.
So too will the second sides of Clonmel Town and Peake Villa, who face off in Clonmel on Sunday morning. Sometimes seen as the “forgotten men” at clubs, the second sides are regularly filled with young talent who can give markers for the footballing health of a club in the future. Villa’s seconds even took one of the coveted open draw places given to the TSDL in the Munster Junior Cup, and will be anxious to show that not only the firsts, but the second team want to bring a title back to the Tower Ground.
The final tie in this weeks first round of the First Division is a meeting of two promoted sides, Cullen Lattin and Galbally United, who took it to the final round of games last season, to decide who would go up as champions. Cullen eventually took those honours, but Galbally have also been introducing a brilliant young Youths side who swept all before them a number of seasons ago, and will be a dangerous proposition for any team in this years league.
TSDL Second Division Preview
Ther are a host of new teams in this seasons Second Division which promises to make for some novel pairings and some good competition between the various clubs. Powerstown have had plenty success since they came into the TSDL a few seasons ago, and they will carry on from their title winning exploits at the end of last year, by hosting the always tough Rosegreen Rangers on Sunday morning. Rosegreen can be a bit of a curates egg in parts, and suffer from inconsistency, but never give any team an easy game, and will give the newcomers a good indication of what they face in their first outing in Second Division football. So too for Moyglass who have been consistently improving over the last number of seasons, when they face off against a Dualla side who were desperately unlucky to miss out on promotion at the back end of last year. Moyglass were a founder member of the league, but spend a lot of the last decade in the doldrums. Dualla only came back in after a period of time out of the TSDL, and both teams will be hoping to make up for lost time this season. Two Mile Borris are another of the promoted sides and welcome St Nicholas to Newhill Park, with a team brimming with younger talent, and hoping to make it two promotions in a row. The Saints hail out of Solohead, and on their day make it difficult for any team, especially at the wonderful Danny O Dwyer Park. A season of consolidation may be on the cards for both sides, but no one will be rushing to count a win over them until its been hard earned. In the final tie of the round, Cashel Town face off against Suirside. Two times who at times flatter to deceive and both fell away badly after promising starts to last season. Cashel’s fine run in the Tipperary Cup is indicative of what they can do when things got right for them, and Suirside can certainly ruffle the feathers of most teams in the Division, but both will crave consistency.
TSDL Third Division Preview
The pick of the ties in the Third Division is the game between two teams from the South of the county, as the returning Ballingarry Albion travel the short distance to Kilsheelan to take on the newly renamed SC & K United, an amalgamation of the schoolboy club Slievenamon Celtic and Kilsheelan United. There has been huge work put into the renamed club in recent years, especially at underage level and they will be hoping this bears fruit over the years ahead. Ballingarry has had many fine teams in different guises over the years, and are never anything less than a tough prospect for any side. Killenaule Rovers welcome Bansha Celtic on Sunday, and again they are a side that showed some great improvements for much of last season, but just couldn’t keep the consistency needed to take advantage of some good results. Celtic finished bottom of the pile last year, so the only way is up for Bansha’s second side. Clonmel Celtic are entering a second team again this season, after a year out, and with the first flying high, this will give many of the fringe players an opportunity to impress and force their way into the first team plans. They will certainly fancy a real run at the Third Division title, and won’t want to fall to Donohill in the first test of the season. But the West Tipperary side will have ambitions of their own and this could make for a good game. The final game of the weekend sees two second team sides, Tipperary Town and Cahir Park measure up against one another. Both will fancy their chances in the game, and will be also trying to catch the eye of first team managers in the higher division.