Kelly pleased with Seniors response to Cork defeat

By Dean Goodison

Manager Denis Kelly was delighted by his teams response to their opening round-robin defeat to Cork, as Tipperary came away from Chadwicks Wexford Park with a 32-point win on Saturday.

“We were happy with the reaction today,” said Kelly.

“We were hurting there for the last week or so, we didn’t show a true reflection of the team we have. So, we definitely had the bit between our teeth.

“It didn’t matter who we played today, we had a real job to do and I thought the girls went out and did the job well, so we are delighted from that point of view. Decent score on the board too, nice to get 7-18 on the board.

“‘We rejigged the team a little bit, so we found today that our positioning of some of the players worked better. Again, we’ll have a look at it as we go along and see where it takes us but happy enough with the reaction, there was definitely hurt there during the week but its eased a bit after that performance.”

While Kelly will have a chance to reflected on the quality of this performance during the coming week, he did have an initial reaction to the most pleasing aspect of this five star performance.

“I think our whole attitude, our work-rate. Even when we were well on top and the game was probably gone from Wexford we stayed going and stayed fighting,’ admitted Kelly.

“There’s real competition for places here, some of the girls didn’t get in today but they are out in the background, getting their runs in. They will be pushing to get in the next day again. So that’s what you want, we are going to have good competition.”

Next up for Tipperary is a trip across to Limerick, knowing after a draw between the Treaty and Clare that they will book a knockout place with a win.

“We played them already in the Munster Championship and we had a handsome enough win.

“But I think they are improving since. Look at them against Cork, it was a tough day for them, but they got a win against Wexford the last day. They will be on the up. It’s all to play for them, they’ll be looking at those final games, those teams, the chasing pack are looking to get to Croke Park the same as the rest of us, so they’ll be really putting in a big effort.”