Delight and relief for Kelly

By Denis Kelly

For Tipperary manager Denis Kelly, there was a mixture of delight and relief following his sides extra time victory over Kilkenny in the quarter-final of the All-Ireland Senior Camogie Championship at Croke Park on Sunday.

Speaking in the aftermath of the game, Kelly pointed to the adjustments made at half-time making a difference, after Kilkenny had the better of the opening half, playing a sweeper which Tipperary failed to fully adjust too.

“It was real pin of our collar stuff, and we were pushed all the way which we knew we would be,” he admitted.

“We showed real character throughout. We were two or three down in extra time, and we didn’t let it faze us; we kept coming in waves and eventually everything paid off and we’re just delighted to get over the line because Kilkenny gave us some game.

“They played a sweeper and they were clever about it, as we were putting up big scores in recent games, and we had a feeling that would happen, but we just didn’t deal with it as well as we could.

“In the first half, we let the sweeper dictate our puckouts, she was getting in pocket of spaces, and we didn’t adapt that well. We couldn’t get our messages in as normally as we usually would.

“At half time we restructured, and we just decided to either go down on top of her or switch sides and get people into space”.

Kelly thought the game was gone from his side when Kilkenny were awarded a penalty in extra time.

“We were in serious trouble, if that went in,” he admitted.

“But Laura has been brilliant for us all year, she’s been a huge find. We lost Nicole Walsh, she’s not part of the panel this year and we needed to fill them boots and she has definitely done that, it was a huge save, as was Mairead Eviston’s block on Ciara Keher Murtagh when it looked like she was clean through what looked like a certain goal and look little things like that all add up at the end of the game.”

The Toomevara native was also pleased with the impact of Jean Kelly who has been making a massive impact off the bench all year, scoring three points to give Tipp a threat inside they were struggling to have.

“Jean is so good off the bench, she comes in and gets her scores, and we are delighted with the way she played today,” Kelly added.

“She gives us such impact off the bench and unfortunately for her it’s a bit like Cork’s Shane Kingston if you can get impact off the bench, that’s what you need, and she certainly gives us that.”

Tipperary are looking forward to a third All-Ireland semi-final in a row and for Kelly knows improvement will be needed going into the game against Galway on 26th July in Kilkenny.

“We are delighted to be in another semi-final,” Kelly added.

“We will regroup in the next few days and look ahead to the game. We know we will definitely have to get better if we are to win the semi-final, but at the same time we know we can improve and that’s the challenge for us.”