Resolve not to panic pleases Heffernan

By Joe Scully

For Tipperary senior camogie manager James Heffernan, he felt Sunday’s victory in the quarter-final of the Munster Championship was a huge win for his team against a very good Cork side.

“It’s a really big win for us, we’re delighted with it, and we had to fight hard for it right to the end,” said the Clonoulty/Rossmore clubman.

“It was never going to be easy out there and Cork made it into a real battle.

“Look, there are things we need to improve on and we weren’t overly happy with, like we are trying to move the ball faster and stuff, but I felt we finished the game incredibly well and a very important win for us.”

Two other aspects that were worrying from a Tipp perspective was the number of wides (11), and how long they went in the second half without scoring.

“You’re trying to keep the scoreboard ticking over the whole time,” Heffernan continued.

“We went about fifteen minutes without a score, and then Eimear Heffernan’s point brought us right back into it, which was very important, but it’s definitely something we have to be conscious of and it’s definitely something we can improve on.”

“As for the wides, the important thing is we are getting in good positions often, and we had a good few wides at the far post, but that’s easy to work on in training, but when you’re under that pressure it is hard to get it right all the time.”

One massive plus for the home side was the impact the bench.

“The bench was really strong, and they all came straight into it,” Heffernan said.

“Lucy (Heffernan) with her two points, and then Caoimhe (Maher) was excellent at centre back when she replaced Celine (Guinan) at the break who went off injured.

“Then you had Jean (Kelly) also scored two points and Niamh (Treacy) and she made the goal, so we got a massive impact off the bench, and it was a crucial aspect of the game.”

Next up for Tipp is a trip to Cork to take on Limerick in the Munster semi-final as part of another double header with the Cork v Limerick hurlers and for Heffernan, that’s where all the focus is for the time-being.

“There’s very little we can do with a seven-day turnaround, but it will be another massive occasion for the girls, before the Cork Limerick game. And that’s where all our focus is on for now.

“We’re not looking too far ahead of ourselves the All-Ireland doesn’t start until June, so it’s a long time to go before that so for now its just focusing on Munster,” concluded the Tipp boss.