Kelly feels Tipp didn’t show true selves
By Joe Scully
Tipperary manager Denis Kelly was bitterly disappointed and felt his side didn’t do themselves justice following their comprehensive defeat at the hands of defending champions Cork in their opening fixture in the All-Ireland Senior Championship on Saturday.
“We felt we had worked really hard and had done a lot of things right in the build up to the game,” revealed the Toomevara clubman.
“We just didn’t hit the ground running early doors, they had three goals scored inside ten minutes or so, and that really put us on the back foot.
“We fought back well in the second half, and it was relativity even, but we definitely have a lot of soul searching to do after this performance.
“We made a few changes at the break and that made a difference, some of the girls just didn’t get off the ground today, and look that happens at times, but we will have to go away now and get ourselves ready for Wexford next weekend, which will be another tough test for us.”
Kelly doesn’t feel the manner of the defeat will have to much of an effect on the morale of the squad and feels it won’t be too hard pick them up ahead of the Wexford game next Saturday.
“It shouldn’t be overly hard,” he said of regrouping for the trip to the Southeast.
“The girls will be disappointed with the way that went today, so they will know themselves that wasn’t good enough for the Tipperary jersey, but at the same time they have put in some serious work.”
“We also have to look at ourselves as a management team and see where it went wrong for us and together hopefully, we can get back up and running for next weekend.”
One plus for the Tipp manager was how well the subs played when they came on and wants to see players fight for a place in the team ahead of the Wexford game.
He said: “Look, the game was probably over by then, but definitely happy with what the subs did when they came on, so we will have to look at training during the week and see which players are putting their hands up for selection for next weekend.”
Off the back of losing Clodagh Quirke to a cruciate knee injury, there was also more bad news for Kelly on the injury front with defender Caoimhe Maher picking up a nasty head injury just before half time and now is a major doubt for the Wexford game, but they are hopeful of having pacey forward Clodagh McIntyre available once more following an ankle injury.