Aggressive Tipp take advantage of rusty Waterford

Tipperary manager Bill Mullaney was very happy with the display his camogie team produced and agreed that the positive start produced in the first half was the key to the victory.

By Liam Hogan

“I was happy with that first half performance,” he began.

“We came out aggressive, played well and stuck to our plan. We pressurised Waterford as much as we could.

“For the second half we made changes as there were a couple of injuries and we lost our shape a small bit. Waterford started coming through the middle and caused us a few problems, but we settled again after it and went on and I think we deserved to see it out very well.”

He added: “The breeze was also a factor and helped us obviously in the first half but it did not dictate the game because in the second half Waterford were given us plenty of it and we had to work hard for our scores. Ok, we didn’t score an awful lot but we finished the game well I thought.”

Despite losing their first round game to Cork, the benefit of it was there as Waterford came in cold having had the bye in round one and Mullaney agreed it helped his side.

“It is always hard on the team that gets the first bye. It could have been us,” he said.

“It is the luck of the draw. The other two teams can knock the rust off and as a result can adjust their game, see what was good and see what was bad. It’s difficult because you don’t know how good you are especially with the covid and until a team’s first game.”

Tipperary now must wait for the outcome of the Waterford v Cork game this weekend to determine if they have progressed to the quarter finals.

New Rule benefit?

One of the new rules on display in last Saturday’s game is a free puck awarded for a personal foul. The rule allows a player fouled inside their own forty-five to take a quick free out of the hand. Otherwise, the free taken the normal way must be by a player other than the one that was fouled.

The new rule certainly speeds up the game and is one for hurling to consider.