Kelly bemoans second half fall off

Tipperary manager Paul Kelly couldn’t understand how his team lost their way in the second half of Sunday’s Munster Senior Football Championship quarter final defeat to Waterford.

By Shane Brophy

“We were controlling that game until half-time and in fairness to Waterford, they came out and put in a performance,” began the Tipp boss.

“We just didn’t play to the ability we have and the ability we showed in the first half. We’re just going to have to take that away and think about it.”

The Dublin native said his team did not take Waterford for granted in anyway but even he must have been surprised by how poor the home side were in the first half, with the wind at their backs. However, they upped the intensity massively in the second half as Tipp fell away disappointingly.

“With more experienced players, they have had very near misses,” Kelly added.

“We had a good idea based on the league of how Waterford were going to set up and we did very well against that in the first half.

“The second half is something we’re just going to have to look at and think about. We didn’t show the energy, positivity, speed, and support that I would’ve expected given the first half. If we’d have showed that speed and support and decision-making that we showed in the first half in the second, it’s a different game. But we didn’t and we’re just going to have to live with that and think about it and see what we do next.”

Anyone close to the Tipperary football scene knew a period of transition was coming after the high of the 2020 Munster Championship win, but the fall has been more dramatic than anyone predicted, and Paul Kelly felt the lack of experience was evident in the second half.

“We have to be very honest with ourselves and recognise there’s a very significant turnover of players there,” he added.

“There were sixteen or so lads left the group before we started this year. There’s upwards of 12 to 16 new chaps, some of whom have never played for their county before. I don’t think we were lazy in any shape or form trawling the county. Everybody had an opportunity. It’s a huge learning curve and hopefully we just keep learning.”

Tipperary have five weeks to pick through the bones of this defeat as they aim to regroup for the Tailteann Cup which gets underway on the weekend of 11-12 May with Kelly revealing the players will be sent back to their clubs for two weeks before gathering again on April 19th.