TIPPERARY will embark on a revenge mission against Waterford at FBD Semple Stadium in this weekend’s Munster SFC quarter-final.
But skipper Steven O’Brien reckons the ground provides little in the way of home comfort for the Premier County.
Tipp have been beaten in their last five outings in Thurles, the most recent of which was the National League clash with London in February.
Their only home victory en route to finishing sixth in Division 4 came against Longford in a game that was played in Clonmel.
Training opportunities are scarce for the county’s footballers in a venue that has historically been associated with major occasions for Tipperary and Munster hurling.
Ahead of Saturday evening’s visit of the Déise, O’Brien explained: “From my own point of view, of course we all want to play in Semple Stadium. But you prefer playing in a game where there’s a bit of buzz around it.
“This year I was part of the team when we played Longford below in Clonmel. As the game reached the latter stages and we were there or thereabouts, you definitely got an extra couple of percent off the crowd.
“So I was always open to the game being played elsewhere. If we can’t, we’d just encourage the Tipp supporters to get into Semple Stadium and try to give us that support because it’s a big factor.
“Semple Stadium has a lot of games on it so our own game-time that we can get in there is limited in terms of getting in to train.
Sometimes it can be as much of an away factor for you as it is for the teams coming, because we’re not playing and training there.
“I was talking to some of the other counties there, where they train full-time in Cusack Park or the Gaelic Grounds or whatever the case is. Maybe that’s something we should be able to do in Semple Stadium.
“I’ll leave that up to the powers that be. I know I’d prefer that if we’re going to be playing our games there, if it’s a home ground, we should be able to get access to it.”
Waterford will hope history can repeat itself this weekend, having picked up their first provincial win since 2010 when they stunned Tipp at the same stage of last year’s Championship.
O’Brien admitted: “I don’t think it matters who it is, you’re always trying to get one back on whoever knocked you out of the Championship last year.
“We’ve been nip and tuck with Waterford over the last couple years so it’s a bit close quarters now with us.
“So we definitely have it in the back of our heads that we just want to get a performance, hopefully undo the result of last year and kick on again.”
O’Brien is ‘hopeful’ of being fit to lead Tipp against Waterford as he continues to deal with a quad injury sustained during the league meeting of the teams seven weeks ago.
