This Saturday, Galway stand between Tipperary and a place in the All Ireland Football quarter-finals.

Should they beat the Tribesmen in Tullamore then it will be their first appearance at that stage since the backdoor system came in.

That potential success will be symbolic of the strides made at underage level for a county that achieved promotion from Division 4 this year.

But how were underage structures developed to make Tipp more competitive?

One man who would know a thing or two about that is David Power who led Tipperary to All Ireland Minor Football Championship glory in 2011 and he cited the work done between U14 level and the minors over the past 5 - 8 years.

Prior to starting to work with the U15s in 2007, Power revealed the difficulties in the football sphere.

"Well, I'll be honest. Back in 2007, the numbers coming through those squads wouldn't have been great. If you were a hurler and a good footballer, you wouldn't see the hurler coming to the football squads. We had to start from scratch and I remember coming up with a plan with different people to put a structure in place. I remember in 2009, we first saw the people that would be dual players, they actually started coming to football. They saw a structure, they saw that Tipp football was no longer a joke in many ways," said Power, also describing how the U15s, U16s and Minors of that era began to win trophies.

He also feels that the minor success of 2011 has resonated across the county, even in parts and clubs where hurling predominated and now the successful underage sides from the past 5 - 8 years forms the bedrock of the current senior setup.

Power also highlighted the importance of putting a structure in place to make the best use of the prevalence of dual players within the county.