Leaders always find a way to win - Woodlock

By Shane Brophy

Tipperary had been down this road before and that is why they emerged from UMPC Nowlan Park as All-Ireland Minor Hurling champions according to manager James Woodlock.

“If it hadn’t happened like that for us throughout the year in different games you might have doubted it today,” he said of the dramatic recovery, which followed those of the Munster Final and the All-Ireland semi-final.

“We hung in there all the time, even when you are going down the home straight and four points down and two minutes left on the clock but the boys showed huge composure at the end.

“To me, leaders always find a way to win games and they did it again today and Paddy (McCormack) was one of them, but throughout the whole field we started to win the breaks in the last five or six minutes and we started to win the breaks and were starting to get to grips with their forwards.”

The dramatic late turnaround completed an equally dramatic renaissance for Woodlock, his management team and some of his players, who endured a tough campaign in Covid impacted 2021 but what doesn’t break you makes you stronger for the Drom & Inch clubman.

“I am absolutely delighted for the players, for the county, for the management team who put in a huge shift,” he continued.

“Last year we were thrown in at the deep end. I know when you put your hand up for a Tipperary job you are under pressure straight away but to be fair and people have to be realistic we got no run at it last year, I knew that and nothing was going to phase me this year, I knew exactly what I wanted to do, but I knew preparation was key to everything. If that game was to go against is today, I couldn’t turn around and say there was anything else we could have done.

“Two or three years ago I was involved in the academies and they are coming, the 15’s and 16’s are coming and those boys are doing huge work.

“Someone was telling me that no Tony Forrestal team has ever gone on and finished the job at minor level. It was in the back of my head, but I never said it to any of my management team or the players, but we have made history today.”

Once again, like the Munster Final, Tipperary had to come from a six point deficit late in the second half with fourteen men, and much like that encounter with Clare, losing a player saw Tipperary hurl freer with nothing to lose at that stage and they played some of their best hurling in that period.

“Offaly drew us onto them a small bit. We found more space,” Woodlock continued.

“Offaly played a small bit like Clare, they did crowd it at the back on us and we couldn’t get traction. They were good in the air today and were knocking the ball to ground.”

“Offaly were excellent had have been all year. We did not impose ourselves, whether it was nerves, the occasion. I am delighted, but relieved more so, because I felt we were the best team all year. Coming in I had huge confidence that we could win the game, if we could perform to our optimum level, and I think there is more in the team. A final takes on a life of its own and no one is going to remember anything bar that Tipperary are All-Ireland champions.”