Skipper McGrath lauds strength of panel

Tipperary joint-captain Aoife McGrath capped another fine personal performance by leading her team into a third successive All-Ireland semi-final on Saturday.

By Enda Treacy

Tipperary joint-captain Aoife McGrath capped another fine personal performance by leading her team into a third successive All-Ireland semi-final on Saturday.

The Loughmore native was in jubilant humour after a big battle in a tough environment, and remarked on how lucky and privileged they are to have the opportunity to be at this stage of a championship in 2020.

“Yeah, it was certainly tough going out there,” she acknowledged.

“But I suppose this was always what we were going to get when you’re playing championship matches in winter.

“Look, we’re just happy that we’re able to play games at the moment and if you told us back last April that we’d be in an All-Ireland semi-final before the end of the year, we’d have bitten your hand off for it, so we’re just absolutely delighted.”

When asked about the second half turnaround in performance McGrath mentioned the poise and composure shown all around the field and felt that they needed a big upturn in attitude to knock back Waterford.

“We knew we had a serious second half to put in. We knew that we’d have to work twice as hard as in the first half.

“Look, we were two points down but at the end of the day, the wind doesn’t put the ball over the bar for you.

“We were probably just a bit nervous on the ball when we were getting into good positions, maybe take our eye of the ball trying to do things right.

“But I definitely feel we settled in the second half and focused on getting the ball in hand and moving it on quickly.

“The whole panel made a big contribution coming in during the second half. Mairead Eviston and Clodagh McIntyre made their debuts and were fantastic, and we had the few coming in from the bench.

“People are pushing hard for places and that’s what you need if you want to win these matches.”