Tipperary midfielder George Hannigan can understand why team-mates Barry Grogan and Brian Jones have decided to spend the summer in the US.

Both will be big losses on Sunday when Tipp pit themselves against Kerry in the Munster SFC for the third successive year.

"At the beginning it was a kick in the teeth to realise that Barry and Brian were going," he is quoted as saying in The Irish Examiner.

"But I was talking to a county player last week, he's in college and doing exams, giving out about training early in the mornings and in the evenings and two matches in one day. Supporters don't really realise the commitment that's needed being on county panels. If you're unemployed and maybe money's hard to get - often training and matches can be the least of your worries."

Hannigan believes the championship draw has prevented Tipp from building on their underage achievements in recent years.

"It's high time that we stepped up to the plate. We have Conor O'Sullivan and Michael Quinlivan in from the minors last year and a good few U21s that won the Munster final a few years ago. We're longing for this run of consecutive games. We feel we're good enough but we haven't got the luck of the draw." Tweet

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