Kelly critical of treatment now injured star Kennedy

By Joe Scully

“Your never happy when you score a goal and it’s not giving,” the words of a very disappointed Tipperary manager Denis Kelly following his sides one point defeat at the hands of Waterford in the Munster semi-final on Sunday.

Kelly was referring to Karen Kennedy’s 54th minute shot that to hit the back of the net before bouncing back out but was not awarded.

“That would have put us three points up at that stage, and we went on to lose by a point,” Kelly added.

“We have to use this to our advantage, as we prepare for the first round of the All-Ireland on the 31st of May,” he continued.

“We will definitely be sore after that, no doubt, because anytime you score a goal that’s not given on the scoreboard, is disappointing, but we take our beating on the chin and move on.”

Despite the defeat, the Toomevara native was happy with aspects of his sides performance but also knows there is still work to be done ahead of their opening game in the championship against league and All-Ireland champions Cork.

“Work-rate, they really upped it today and we knew we had to coming up against Waterford, there a tough team to play against,” he added.

“We’re happy enough with the performance, a few little tweaks we need to work on, we missed a few chances again there, but the girls fought tooth and nail, and we probably made a few wrong decisions at times, but look you learn from that going forward.”

Kelly was also unhappy with the lack of protection afforded to Karen Kennedy with the Tipperary captain having to go off injured late on in the game.

“We are not sure at this stage on the injury to her or Clodagh (Quirke), but for Karen it was disappointing to see every time she went to the ball, she was being fouled and walked on and different things,” Kelly revealed.

“There was a lot of fouls for sure, but we didn’t really see any cards till late on in the game. You would like to have your top players protected, and she definitely wasn’t protected there today.”

Kelly is now looking ahead to the All-Ireland series and a tough opening fixture against Cork with other games against Limerick Clare and Wexford.

“We’re disappointed here today, we would have liked another game in the Munster championship and a crack at Cork but look we will have them in the first game of the All-Ireland, so maybe it’s not a bad thing to avoid playing them twice, because they are a very hard team to beat once let alone twice.

“We will regroup, and have a look at things, and we will recharge the batteries for a bit and then get ready for Cork on the 31st of May,” he concluded.