TIPPERARY LADIES FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIPS LAUNCHED IN FETHARD TOWN PARK
By CK Streaming 

With the conclusions of the Adult League Finals having taken place over the weekend it's full steam ahead with the start of the Adult Championships getting underway over the course of this weekend.
Tipperary Ladies Football in association with their official broadcast partner CK Streaming recently held the official launch of the championships.
With 38 different teams taking part over 6 competitions and the majority of clubs in attendance at the launch all clubs are looking forward to what promises to be a feast of football in The Premier County in the coming months.

Junior D
The Junior D' competition sees 9 teams taking part in two groups with Group 1 comprising Clerihan, Moyne-Templetuohy, Golden-Kilfeacle, Fethard and Mullinahone.
Clerihan and Golden have made huge strides over the last few years and will be hoping to take some big scalps in this group. Moyne-Templetuohy have a nice mix of youth and experience and their progression could depend on how many players are used on their Junior A team. Mullinahone's second team shows the strides they're currently making and the experience a lot of their girls got while being involved in the Junior A run to the All-Ireland could prove key here. Fethard after their superb win in the league final will be high on confidence and will like to think they'll have a huge say at the business end of the championship.
Group 1 see Aherlow, Ardfinnan, Killenaule and Slieve Felim Rapparees. Aherlow and Ardfinnan will be the favourites here but Killenaule competing at Adult level for the first time will be confident they can be competitive while Rapparees after their recent success at U-16 and U-21 level can justifiably feel they can claim more silverware. They'll be the dark horses in this competition.

Junior C
Junior C is made up of 4 teams with Templemore. Cahir, Moyle Rovers and Brian Borus and while all 4 will be feeder teams to their senior squads this promises to be an opener competition. Both Borus and Templemore have plenty of players who were involved in the clubs recent U-21 successes while Moyle Rovers and Cahir have a sprinkling of players who were part of U-16 success over the last couple of years so it's all to play for here. All 4 teams will be confident of claiming county honours.

Junior B
This is a wide open competition with Holycross-Ballycahill, Boherlahan-Dualla, Lattiin-Cullen/Emly, Loughmore-Castleiney and Rockvale Rovers.
The team everyone is keeping an eye on to see how they progress is the newly formed Loughmore-Castleiney. They're in the unusual position for a newly formed club to have a wealth of experience with a lot of their players having played with near neighbours Templemore, Moyne-Templetuohy and Thurles Sarsfields before returning to the newly formed club in their home parish.
Holycross have being knocking on the door for the last few years in need to make the breakthrough shortly with all their underage success, but will be smarting after the recent league final defeat to Lattin-Cullen/Emly who are bound to be high in confidence given how impressive they were on the way to achieving league honours.
Boherlahan will be confident of making a serious go at this championship while Rockvale Rovers based in Newport and with huge work going in up there from former Tipperary Senior Football manager Tom McGlinchey and numerous others have taken the bold step to move up to this grade and play at a higher level.

Junior A
The Junior A see's St.Odhran's Silvermines, St. Patrick's, Sliabhnamban, Moycarkey-Borris, Moyne-Templetuohy and Arravale Rovers compete.
Silvermines last year's Junior B champions will be looking to make progress up to this grade. Pat's will be backboned by the majority of their U-21 team who were beaten in the Division 2 League Final will be looking to the likes of county senior panelist Eabha Hogan to make a semi-final at the very minimum.
Sliabhnamban spearheaded by the two Martin sisters Niamh and Nora arguably two of Tipperary's best players this year will be hoping the experience of the two girls can drive them to success.
Moycarkey last year's beaten county finalists were hugely impressive in their league success beating Moyne-Templetuohy will be hoping the experienced Caithriona Walsh and Maeve Corcoran to take them one step further than last year.
Arravale with Sarah Ryan who this year became the first player from the club to play senior football for Tipperary will be hoping the likes of herself, her cousin Ciara Ryan, Nia Donovan will spearhead them to the business end of the year. If County U-16 captain Ciara O'Hora lines out as well Arravale have every reason to be confident.
Moyne-Templetuohy despite the heavy loss in the league final will have Ellen Moore back for the start of the championship. Roisin Daly will miss the first round due to being out of the country Cathy Hogan, Niamh Ryan, Eva Sumner and Niamh Dunne to get them out of the group.
This is a huge year for the club having lost in the final two years ago and letting a golden opportunity slip last year to get back to the final so county honours is certainly on their mind

Intermediate
The intermediate championship sees last year's All-Ireland Junior Finalists Mullinahone move up the ranks, last year's beaten finalists Ardfinnan, Cappawhite and Boherlahan-Dualla take part.
Mullinahone will be hoping John Leahy can continue the excellent work done by Paul Kelly last year and while Lorraine and Aoibhe O'Shea are the stand out names we saw last year every player makes a huge contribution to the success of this team. Emma Cody and Jenny Brett making huge runs from the half-back line, with the likes of Chloe Gunn running at defences if she doesn't score herself she'll make space for others.
Ardfinnan will once again look to the experience of Samantha Lambert while Clara English has been hugely impressive all year since making her senior debut with Tipp earlier in the season. They'll have to plan without star player Laura Dillon who recently had the misfortune of tearing her cruciate ligament and will miss the campaign. Will this have a bearing on how their season pans out? Only time will tell.
Cappawhite had a poor league campaign as players slowly returned to action but will be looking to the likes of Elaine and Jean Kelly to spearhead their campaign. They probably feel they didn't do themselves justice in last year's semi-final defeat to Ardfinnan when they had the game by the scruff of the neck but failed to capitalise on it so will be hoping to rectify that this year.
Boherlahan after a hugely impressive campaign in Division 1 of the league when they lost out to eventual winners Cahir by the smallest of margins in the semi-final will come into this campaign thinking this could be the year they achieve senior status.
Caoilinn Casey, Grace Moloney and Casey Hennessy have returned from inter-county duty while Emer Dwan is slowly becoming one of the most exciting young prospects in the county. If Ray Gilmartin and Richie Ryan can gel all the raw talent at their disposal together then this team looks like they've the potential to go all the way.

Senior
The Senior Championship sees 9 teams with 2 groups. In Group 1 Brian Borus, Clonmel Commercials, Fethard, Galtee Rovers and Thurles Sarsfields will battle it out for the two semi-final spots.
Borus will still be hurting from last year's heartbreaking final defeat to Aherlow. Orla Fleming will be hoping that loss can drive them on in this campaign. Laura Morrissey has been struggling with injury lately but if she gets back to full fitness will marshall the edge of the square and no full-forward will relish the prospect of coming up against her. Jen Grant, Maureen Murphy, Cliona O'Dwyer are some of the stand out names and if they can bring in some of their successful U-21 team Borus can go deep into the competition.
Commercials were shooting the lights out in the league before coming unstuck in the semi-final against Moyle Rovers. Despite this they'll look to Niamh Mackey, Anna Carey, Courtney Lonergan, Sally Qunlivan and Sara Ryan to progress out of the group.
Fethard have the potential to have a huge say in the championship. They're currently playing a fast running game that when it comes off is great to watch. They'll hope Carrie Davey can play a part in the campaign after struggling with injury and if the likes of Lucy Spillane, Leah Coen, Niamh Hayes and Kate Davey can click watch out for what can be a huge year for the club.
2021 Intermediate champions Galtee will be riding the crest of a wave and hope the spirit shown in that intermediate success can drive them forward.
Ruth Ronan has left from last year's panel while Megan Heffernan is on the way to The States to commence a soccer scholarship and Kate Flannery's rugby career is starting to take off with Ireland.
Despite these losses the likes of Edith Carroll, Niamh Roche, Emer McCathy, Aoibhe Gayson Molloy, Ali Lonergan and county minor captain Aoife Flynn will no doubt look to build on the success of 2021.
Sars will be hoping the loss of a few key players who have transferred back to their home club of Loughmore won't have too much of a bearing for them.
Katelyn Ruddy, Clodagh Irwin, Marie Creedon and Andrea Loughnane will take up the mantle and look to improve on last year's showing.
Group 2 is the ultimate Group of Death with reigning champions Aherlow joined by last year's beaten semi-finalists Cahir and Moyle Rovers with Templemore completing the group.
All four teams will have designs on getting out of the group.
Aherlow currently have Anna Rose Kennedy out of the country and will be hoping to still be in contention when she returns, while her sister Caitlin is close to full fitness having missed the inter-county championship through injury. Laura Ivory and Brid Condon will no doubt lead from the back while Maire Condon, Sara Morrissey and the ever impressive Emma Morrissey fresh from her ice cool finish against Cavan recently will be looking to help the girls from The Glen put back-to-back together.
Cahir fresh from their league final success will be confident of doing the double. Aoife Corcoran and Emma Buckley are in super form at the moment through the spine of the defence, with Clara Fahey the engine in midfield. Anna Downey showed her class recently kicking 4 points from play in the league final and with Niamh Costigan, Roisin Howard, Orla McInery and Rosanna Kiely in attack they're going to be a handful for any defence. Add in the strong bench and rumours that Aishling Moloney might see in action before the year is out Cahir sit rightfully as favourites for the crown at the moment.
While Moyne Rovers will be disappointed with their league final defeat they showed enough over the course of the campaign to think they can get out of the group.
Niamh Lonergan is still leading the attack and with the Cronin sisters Emma and Michelle in defence and Hazel Brennan returning they can be confident before the campaign kicks off. Kirsty Crotty-Ryan is in super form right now and with the highly potential U-16 Tipp Panelists to return the girls from Lisronagh will be confident of making inroads as the year progresses. They'll hope the experienced Gillian O'Brien will return from injury before the first round.
Templemore make up Group 2 and with huge work gone in at grassroots level one feels it's only a matter of time before they make the breakthrough at senior level.
It remains to be seen what if any part Maria Curley will play in the championship after her recent injury picked up against Dublin. Having said that Ava Ormond, Iris Kaiser and Erin Bourke will shore up the defence while the experience of Elaine Fitzpatrick around the middle of the field will give freedom to the likes of Neassa Towey, Shauna Quirke and the two Delaneys Aine and Kate to express themselves. Add in Jill Johnston, Dani Ryan and a few more and there's plenty of quality in this team
Templemore have been slowly building a strong panel over the last few seasons and while some people might see them as outsiders in this group that might just give them the chance to play with abandon and a nothing to lose attitude. Don't be surprised to see Templemore upset the apple cart here and make it out of the group.

So with the championships ready to kick off don't forget you can see all the action exclusively live with CK Streaming. The championship preview show will be available to view later this week. CK Streaming have raised the profile of ladies football in Tipperary over the last 18 months and to keep up to date with all that's happening in The Premier County subscribe to their Youtube channelLet the games begin.