Tipperary's 'spirit' has Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice on red alert ahead of the Munster SFC final.

Fitzmaurice and his players certainly aren't going to take their Premier opponents for granted at Fitzgerald Stadium on Sunday.

"There's a couple gone, Colin O'Riordan, Stephen O'Brien, Paddy Codd, and there's a couple of their more experienced players that were the core of their team," the Kingdom boss told The Irish Independent.

"But at the same time, they've some other very good young players that are coming through.

"You've Quinlivan, Brian Fox - who was outstanding the last day - George Hannigan, you've Acheson, you've Conor Sweeney, you've McDonald at the back, their goalkeeper Evan Comerford is a good goalkeeper, he has good kickout.

"It's funny that sometimes when you have a very strong group - as they had last year and the last couple of years - that had a particular pedigree, when they come through then, maybe into a group that had been there already and the older group aren't quite getting the credit that they deserve, there can be a bit of a division within the panel.

"Whereas to me, the team that played against Cork anyway looked very unified. There seemed to be a serious spirit in the group and sometimes when you lose a few big names, the sum of the parts becomes more important than relying on one or two big names.

"And the thing about when you have one or two big names, if you quieten those one or two big names, maybe the other fellas aren't used to having to do a bit more.

"Whereas this year I think that Tipperary, looking at it from the outside, they look to be very close knit, to have a serious spirit."

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