Heffernan pleased to end league on a high

By Joe Scully

Tipperary manager James Heffernan cut a contented figure after his side finished their National League campaign with a comprehensive victory over previously undefeated Waterford.

The Clonoulty/Rossmore clubman was happy but knows there is still work to be done ahead of the championship.

“It was probably hard for Waterford, they had won four from four before today and were already in the league final, so maybe motivation wasn’t quite the same for them,” he began.

“We were still under a bit of pressure, we kind of needed a win to stave off any remaining doubts about relegation, but from the word go I thought we played really well and very happy with the performance and win. The girls worked hard, but in fairness to them they always do, and their fitness is coming on the whole time as well.

“You could see at half time that most of them were wrecked and that just shows how hard they all worked, and we got on fresh bodies in the second half so we could keep the intensity going, and it’s a great way to finish the league, as we had some tough games as well in the league so nice to finish on a positive note.”

For Heffernan he was happy overall with how his sides league campaign went if a little disappointed they didn’t make a final. “It was kind of up and down,” he admitted.

“Even the defeats against Galway and Kilkenny, we thought there were positives to take from them. As the league as gone on, stuff like our shooting has really improved, especially over the last two games, and that’s a basic really and I think that’s really showed on the scoreboard today.

“In general, it was a good league, we got minutes into a lot of players and a few coming back from injury and trying to get them up to speed. Happy overall, it would have been nice to get to a league final, but that was always going to be a long shot after losing games two and three.

With a months’ gap until their next outing against Cork in the Munster championship, Heffernan knows it will be a crucial period to work on things and get it right for what will be a step up in intensity.

“We will probably take a couple of sessions off this week, they have worked really hard so far, and we will get back at it next weekend,” Heffernan revealed.

“Then you have three weeks to the Cork game, and hopefully we will have a couple of players back from injury over the break and we should be almost at full strength by the time the Cork game comes around.

“It will be a whole other different test, I mean league is league, but championship is a different story, so we are going to have to come up and improve over the next four weeks or so”.

For Tipp captain Caoimhe McCarthy Saturday’s win over Waterford was a welcome one, and also to get a much more rounded performance

“We just wanted to go out and perform today,” she said.

“There are still loads to work on for the Munster championship in a month’s time but yeah very happy with today.

“In our other games we probably tended to die out a bit in parts, so we just wanted to keep that up from the start today and we did, but there is still a lot to work on, we probably died off a little today towards the end, but the work rate from 1-15 and even the subs that came on was great, we all put our shoulders to the wheel I felt.”

McCarthy was also very happy with how the league went from a perspective of building a panel.

“Loads of players got a chance and we are really happy with that,” she added.

“We are all about building the panel, and loads of girls are putting their hands up. Anyone can be on the team for the game against Cork and that’s exactly what we want as a squad.

“We have four hard weeks of training now ahead of us, and we got what we wanted out of the league, and while we do have lots to work on there has been loads of improvements as the league has progressed, so we have to be happy with that. We know what we are aiming to achieve this year, are on course for it so far.”