Praise for the defence as Tipp turn attention to Kilkenny
By Thomas Conway
It remains to be seen whether this Tipperary team can infiltrate the Cork-Kilkenny-Galway triad which has dominated camogie’s biggest day for the past six years.
No other team has featured in an All-Ireland Senior Camogie Final since 2012, when Wexford overcame Cork to complete a famous three-in-a-row for the Model County.
In beating Limerick last Saturday, interim manager Niamh Lillis and her Tipperary squad might just have crafted themselves the perfect opportunity. They now face a Kilkenny side in a semi-final which, talented as they are, look slightly less unassailable than title-holders Cork.
There’s also the fact that Kilkenny have endured agonising defeats to the Rebels in the past two All-Ireland Finals – losing by a point on either occasion. Complacency certainly won’t be an issue for the players, but most people will be anticipating another Cork-Kilkenny showdown, and that’s the kind of atmosphere in which an upset can happen.
In the aftermath of Saturday’s game, manager Niamh Lillis was effusive in her praise of Tipperary’s second-half performance – less enthusiastic about the first though. A string of last-minute changes could have contributed to a somewhat nervous start by the Tipp players, but once everyone had found their feet, Lillis felt that her side adapted to the new game-plan in impressive style.
“Look we didn’t really play well in the first-half, we dropped a lot of ball, we weren’t comfortable on the ball,” she said.
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