Niamh Martin was just arriving on the Tipperary scene the year that they got their hands on the All-Ireland Intermediate Ladies Football title.

Given what has happened since for the county they beat on the day, there is plenty of inspiration that they should take going forward.

It was none other than current senior champions Meath who provided the opposition in that intermediate decider two and a half years ago, with the Royal County going on to win the title themselves the following year before stepping up to the top grade last year.

Their warp-speed journey didn't stop there and no one needs reminding about last September's monumental achievement when Meath went even bigger and better than ever before by dethroning a dominant Dublin and winning their first senior All-Ireland.

Tipp were among the teams they beat in the 2021 group phase and as Martin and co get ready for what this year has to offer, the recent crossing of paths against the champions provides a staging post about their diverging paths and the building blocks needed to spark similar growth.

"We have to look back to 2019 where we beat Meath in the All-Ireland final which proves that we can compete with the best team really at the moment," Martin told RTÉ Sport at the announcement of the new naming rights partnership between FBD and Semple Stadium, where she made a "nerve-wracking but exciting" Tipperary debut during a Munster Championship victory over Limerick in that intermediate title-winning year.

"It's great to see that (Meath) got up from that knock. Losing an All-Ireland final is heartbreaking and they used that for the next year and then straight away won the All-Ireland (senior) final, so they are a great inspiration to be fair and we'll have to look closely into their development over the last two years."

Her own prep ahead of this year has been bolstered by plenty of college football prior to Christmas, and with Martin studying financial maths and actuarial science in UCC, the sport has helped provide a timely anchor for the academic side of things in these pandemic-affected times.

"The main perk of football is that it helps balance your life. I suppose with Covid now, it's easy to procrastinate," she said.

"College and football would be the two main things in my life at the moment and with college you can procrastinate. (The classes) are online now so you can be like 'oh, I can do that later' but at the end of the day you know you've training at a specific time so you need to get your lectures done before that.

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"And you also know you need to get up and have your breakfast and be fueled for training in the evening. So it gets you going and gets you out."

More fuel for 2022 will be to fire the desire to bounce back from last year which was challenging for Tipperary who avoided relegation from the top tier by beating Tyrone in a relegation final.

With the Premier County hoping to distance themselves as much as possible from coming close to that fate again this year, they intend to hit the ground running when the national football league recommences when they face provincial rivals Kerry on 13 February. Games against Laois and Clare will then follow in Division 2A for Martin and co.

"Absolutely we need to look at last year and learn from what happened there but we also need to forget about it at the same time and recoup and build our confidence back and I suppose we're just focused on the Kerry game at the moment, focusing on each match as it comes and hopefully we'll perform on the day," she said.

"We definitely can't underestimate Kerry. They beat us by a large margin last year but hopefully this year we'll perform better."