Evans delighted with this short straw

ALL-IRELAND QUALIFIERS:HE DESCRIBED drawing Dublin as "tremendous", and playing them in Croke Park as "brilliant" – and he wasn't being sarcastic.

But then Tipperary football manager John Evans has a tendency to look on the bright side, even when it’s dark outside.

So of the two so-called short straws in the draw for the second round of the All-Ireland football qualifiers, Tipperary drew one of them, Dublin – and will thus face-off against the beaten Leinster semi-finalists in a Croke Park double-bill on Saturday week, July 11th, with a 6pm throw-in.

The opening act will be the Dublin hurlers, who face Clare – home of Dublin manager Anthony Daly – in phase two of the qualifiers, and that game will throw in at 4pm.

“The experience of playing the Dubs will be tremendous for our lads,” declared Evans, who on Sunday saw his Tipperary team record a tremendous win over Laois to book their place in the second round.

“And I’ve no problem with playing the Dubs at home. I think Croke Park would be brilliant for us, actually. It will certainly bring a whole lot of Dubs in there. We’d be absolutely thrilled.

“I suppose everybody was trying to avoid Dublin, and Cork, and we unfortunately got Dublin. But look, the draws haven’t been kind to us this year, right from the start.

“We were in the bowl with Cork and Kerry here in Munster, and there wasn’t much light at the end of the tunnel there. Then we’d the six-week wait, before meeting the losers of Meath and Laois. When we drew Laois there wasn’t much light there either. But we turned it over.

“I was telling the lads, before the Laois game, look, we’ve played Kerry, and when you’ve played Kerry, you can play anybody. Because you’ve played the best.

“I mean, the fact that we have played Kerry means we didn’t fear Laois, or anybody else for that matter. I’m dealing with a bunch of young players who don’t fear anything. They just want the experience, and the big occasion. They’re gobbling it up.”

There is always the danger Dublin will gobble up Tipperary, although having conceded five goals to Meath on Sunday they’ll certainly need to get that part of their house in order.

“Jeepers, when you concede five goals, you’ve serious problems,” agreed Evans. “But that’s Pat Gilroy’s problem. In fairness, though, he said from the outset of this year that this was going to be a year of hard work, trying to reinvent Dublin, to get them on the right track, and he needs to be given the bit of breathing space to do that. Hopefully not on Tipperary, of course.”

Tipperary’s win over a full-strength Laois was all the more impressive given Evans has lost the services of five players: Ciarán McDonald, Alan Moloney, Ryan Dwyer and Chris Aylward have all gone to the US for the summer, while forward Seán Carey is concentrating on his hurling.

Cork, meanwhile – the other short straw in the draw – will provide the opposition for Cavan, who somehow survived their first-round qualifier against Wicklow last Saturday night.

Cork also have home advantage there, having been drawn from the bowl first, and the game is fixed for Páirc Uí Chaoimh on Saturday week.

In fact, six of the eight beaten provincial semi-finalists were drawn at home, gaining an extra advantage when the teams they face might well have done with it.

Seven of the eight games take place on Saturday week, July 10th, with one on the Sunday, the all-Ulster meeting of Fermanagh and Armagh.

The losers of the Galway-Sligo Connacht semi-final replay (which has been confirmed for Markievicz Park this Saturday evening, with a 6pm throw-in, live on TV3) will have home advantage when they play Wexford – while the team which comes out of this Saturday’s first round replay between Antrim and Kildare (which has a 7pm start in Casement Park) will also be at home for the next match when they play Leitrim.

Offaly’s narrow win over Clare on Saturday night – after extra-time – has created the novel pairing with Waterford, the beaten Munster football semifinalists.

That game forms part of a double-header in Tullamore, as the Offaly hurlers face the disjointed Limerick team in the other All-Ireland phase two qualifier.

“It’s a bit of a step into unknown,” said Waterford manager John Owens. “I haven’t played Offaly before with this group of players, but it could have been Armagh.

“We can’t have too many complaints about being away either. We’ve been at home in Dungarvan for our two games in the championship already. It was bound to come to the stage when we had to go on the road.”