Kelly pleased with win but not the performance

By Shane Brophy

Tipperary manager Denis Kelly was pleased with the win but not the manner of the performance in their victory over Dublin at Parnell Park on Saturday.

“I’m happy to get the win,” he began.

“It is always a tough place to come and play. We found that out last year in the championship.

“But we wouldn’t be happy with a lot of things, especially the first half where our workrate was down, maybe we hadn’t our eye full on the ball so this is something we will need to rectify going forward and we have a lot of work to do this week.”

Tipperary were slow to get going and played second fiddle in terms of workrate, intensity and scoring chances in the first half, despite going in at half time with a one-point lead.

“We just had to up our workrate,” Kelly added of the second half improvement.

“We had to carry the ball into the wind in the second half and deliver it inside, they played with a sweeper for the whole game so we had to try and avoid the ball into the six channel which we did fairly well.

“We made a few changes and with eight subs it gives you a chance to freshen things up, even if some players are going okay, and some of the moves worked fairly well for us in the second half.”

In the National League, eight substitutions are allowed, and Kelly used four of them at half time and could have taken any four players off at the break, bar Roisin Howard and Karen Kennedy who were to the fore in the opening half.

“They could have put us to the sword in the first half,” Kelly added.

“We were sloppy and a little bit casual on the ball and that comes with having a big win over Galway last weekend and then playing a Dublin side who wouldn’t be of the same calibre. But you have to prepare for every game and that’s the way it goes, and it was a good lesson for us today.”

In the two games so far, Denis Kelly hasn’t been slow to try some things with Caoimhe Maher moving from wing to full forward, while Casey Hennessy has gone the other way to midfield and was hugely impressive.

“Casey has been a revelation since she went out there,” added the Tipp manager.

“We hope she will keep that form up. She showed great energy out there.”

He added: “Mairead Eviston was out of position today as well, so it is about trying things for later on down the road.

“We got a good win last week and another today but not as impressive but is a win at the same time.

“It is two from two, so we are looking to push on, Cork is a big test coming to The Ragg next weekend. They are two from two as well so one of us are going to suffer next weekend so we will be looking to rectify some things that went against us today but at the same time the girls showed a great honesty and effort in the second half and were happy with the result.”

All Star controversy

Commenting in the current controversy with the arranging of the Camogie All-Star trip to Canada a week before the Munster Championship in May, the Tipperary manager described it as “crazy.”

“It wouldn’t happen in the men’s code.

“You can’t expect girls to go on a trip and their county out in the championship a week later. It can’t really happen and they will have to do something about it.”

Tipperary had no All-Stars in 2022 and have no players caught up with the issue but with Cork’s players pulling out of the trip, it could fall on some Tipp players to fill the panel.