Denis Kelly looks to the positives from defeat
By Joe Scully
Tipperary manager Denis Kelly was disappointed with his sides first half performance in their three point defeat to Waterford in their opening Division 1A League encounter on Saturday but was happier with their second half effort.
“Look, it was the first half we were disappointed with, we came out better in the second half, but ultimately we came up short,” he began.
“The goal was the difference for a finish but look it was better second half.”
It was a much changed Tipperary side with Nicole Walsh playing her first game in goals while Silvermines duo Ellen Cunneen and Sarah Madden made their senior debuts in the full-back line, while Kate Ralph and Celine Guinan made their bows off the bench.
“We were down a few bodies, not making any excuses, but we got a good run out and got to look at a few newcomers as well,” Kelly added.
“There’s nobody overly long-term Karen Kennedy (captain) maybe three or four weeks, also Julie Anne Bourke, Aoife McGrath and Mary Ryan a good few out, but at the same time it’s a good chance to look at the young girls, and to see how they will matchup in this kind of climate”.
Kelly was a little disappointed with some of the decisions that went against his side but didn’t feel that was the reason his side lost.
“The free count at one stage was 16 to 4 or something like that,” he pointed.
“But that’s the way these things go and on another day we might get the rub of the green, we will not get carried away with that, and will concentrate on what we can do better the next day.
“It’s only the first round of the league and we have Galway coming up in a weeks’ time, and we have to be much better for that. It’s a big challenge coming to town, and we will go away and have a look of the video of this and see where we can improve for next week.”
Stand-in captain Caoimhe Maher was also very disappointed with the result.
“Yeah, it’s disappointing to be honest, we came here looking to win, but credit to Waterford they came out strong and fair play to them.
“But we can only learn from that, and we have to go again next week, and turn things around against Galway.
“We were missing a few, but going out ahead of the game on Thursday we asked the question, did anyone on the fifteen think they didn’t deserve to be playing and if they didn’t we weren’t missing anybody, and we had the attitude we could win but came up just short in the end.”