Ryan hails stubbornness of his players

If ever a team responded in the image of their manager, Tipperary did it on Sunday.

For the second Sunday in a row they refused to wave the white flag, instead chasing some of their own and a few green ones to keep their championship hopes alive.

“We didn't have a choice, it was fold the tents and get nothing out of this game or fight it out,” said Michael Ryan of his sides incredible resilience to overcome an eleven point second half deficit to earn what could be a valuable point in their hopes of progressing to the knockout stages of the championship.

“That's not in their DNA. They don't do it, they just give and give and give.

“They're a special bunch. They care so deeply about the game and about the jersey and they were certainly not going to go out without a whimper even thought it might have looked like it.”

He added: “We don't give in, we won't give in.

“Look if that's just thickness fair enough, we're just thick. But that's what we are.

“We're here to play and we don't give in. Matches, time and time again, super matches have been won in the last two minutes of the game or the last 30 seconds.

“Look it we salvaged a draw again, I'd say in the last 20 seconds of the game and just great credit goes to a group that will keep trying. They are so honest but you know we really do need to start playing better than we did.

“That's to take nothing away from Waterford and their commanding lead at half-time. We made two really poor mistakes to let them in for two goals.

“But look it we were all out of the blocks pretty quickly and it was going to develop into a really high scoring game but we just fell under the cosh with those couple of goals and a red card to boot. That really put us under pressure. Waterford then controlled it. For the 10, 15 minutes after half-time, the game was played on Waterford's terms and they had the legs and they had the extra player when they needed it and they used the ball better than we did. But we finally found a bit of a rhythm and fought our way back into the game.”

 

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