Woodlock hopes game stands to Tipp ahead of final

By Shane Brophy

Tipperary manager James Woodlock was a relieved man as his minor charges found their flow just in time to get the better of Cork in Saturday’s All-Ireland semi-final.

It means a third final appearance in five years under the Drom & Inch clubman who recalled this victory as being similar in manner to the 2022 & 2024 semi-final victories over Galway at the same venue.

“We've been here twice before and went down the same road,” he began.

“All-Ireland semi-finals are the most difficult of all games to win because there is so much at stake. The final is actually easier to play.”

He added: “We were probably a bit rusty starting off but we got the goals when it mattered. We had more (chances) and didn't take them, but Cork, to be fair, had more goal (chances) as well and didn't take them.

“It wasn’t an eight point game. Cork offered so much to it, they attacked all over. In Thurles they went with a sweeper, it didn’t suit them but today they came after us really hard and had us all sorts of bother.”

Woodlock felt the 29-day gap since their Munster Final victory played a part in Tipp’s error count and it took them until late into the second half to shake off the rustiness.

“Did we handle it well?” Woodlock asked himself.

“I felt you couldn't handle any better than we did, but nothing beats playing championship hurling so you have to go and experience it yourself, and with the couple of misses we had, they were all small little bits of rustiness and I think we blew them out of the tank today and hopefully will be better in two weeks’ time because of that.

Chris Dunne’s 3-5 contribution claimed most of the limelight but the Gortnahoe/Glengoole clubman didn’t have the perfect game, missing some scoreable frees in the second half while also going for goal from a 21-yard free when three points up, denied by the Cork rearguard which ignited the Rebels.

“We took wrong decisions. Chris will acknowledge his one was a wrong decision,” Woodlock said.

“The momentum switched completely after for a couple of minutes. Then, once we swung it back, we went after them hard again with our forwards rotating all the time really worked with different scorers and different threats inside. There's a nice balance in the team, overall, we have fetchers in the air, we have pace around. As always, they will never die or give up.

He added: “At the start of the year, when you give a player a jersey, in our set-up, that means I trust him, and he trusts us, in what I'm doing. So, I'm never going to be on the line with a player inside that field looking out with me saying, I'm going to be taken off. That'll never be an issue. I trust them, they stay on and they came good when he wanted.”

“You'd also be happy with the contribution off the bench. You’d love to play everyone; we can’t but today was about getting all the line and we achieved that.”

The former Tipperary senior midfielder was also pleased with how the team stuck to their guns, despite admitting their tried to force too many goals when points would have been the better option.

“In the first half, we were trying to over force goals,” Woodlock agreed.

“We feel we have the finishers inside. I trust them, they are an attacking team and make good decisions. I off-load that responsibility on to them so they made the decisions on the field of play ultimately and if they felt that was the right option that is what they are going for. Luckily enough, we got the goals and it's nice when it pays off.”

Ahead of the final against Limerick, the Tipp manager said that winning a greater share of the breaking ball would be needed as they were second best to Cork in this regard but hopes the game will have brought the team on as they prepare to face to face the Shannonsiders for the third time in the campaign.

“It’s an aspect of the game we wouldn't be happy with because we pride ourselves on our work-rate all the time, and that honesty and endeavour,” Woodlock said.

“Ultimately, we just couldn't get to the breaks, they were getting there that bit ahead of us. We spoke about it at half time, but in the second half they still hurt us on it but I felt we hurt them more once we got the ball inside when we got it in quicker as well.

“I'm hoping that rustiness is gone out of us today and the boys will hurl with freedom.

“I felt the boys grew into the game. They kept moving inside and kept showing for the ball which gave us a great out at back. Cork, from the off, squeezed up on us so it did leave huge space for us to go into, and that was an aspect of the game we had looked at, and we exploited it in the second half when Cork went full squeeze on us, we did have the space and we felt we would have the legs to hurt them.”