Mullaney looking for improvement for quarter final

 

By Enda Treacy

What was expected to be a very favourable group draw for Tipperary has turned out to be so with two wins from two seeing the Premier ladies into knockout camogie after victories over Clare and Dublin with some flashes of the form that had them flying earlier in the year. 

They displayed flashes of quality last Sunday against Dublin and Tipperary manager Bill Mullaney is happy that they’ve achieved so far, what they set out to do at the beginning of the championship with plenty to build on after an attritional encounter against the Dubs. 

“A win is a win,” expressed Mullaney in the aftermath of his sides victory. 
“Dublin were really physical throughout the match. They made it a really tough battle around the pitch for us, particularly around the rucks which we found hard to come out with the ball. 
“But overall, I felt we were comfortably the better team over the course of the game, we left a lot of scores behind us in the first half and at the start of the second half; at least 1-4 so I felt we deserved the win.” 

Tough battles like this will stand to Tipp going forward and after the ease at which they dispatched Clare in the first game, a good contest - in which the contribution of the bench was notable - was exactly what was needed for Mullaney’s side going into the white heat of knockout championship. 

“We certainly have improving to do,” Mullaney reflected. 
“It took us a few minutes to settle into the game today but the pitch they brought us up to play in is tight and the conditions were tough so to get a win in the circumstances will stand to us. 
“We feel we’ve a very strong panel this year, you know. The game is more than just the starting fifteen now, you need five quality players to come in if you want to win big matches and we certainly feel like we have that and that’s what we’ll need because whoever we get in the quarter will be a big test, Mullaney,” he finished. 

Tipperary will top their three team group and so progress to an All-Ireland quarter final on November 14th where they will play a runner-up from either group 1 and 2 which at the moment looks one of Galway, Cork, Westmeath or Waterford.