Woodlock lauds resilience of players which will be needed in Kilkenny cauldron

By Shane Brophy

“It was very tight but what else would you expect when it comes to a Tipperary v Galway game,” was how Tipp manager James Woodlock began his reflection on his sides All-Ireland semi-final win on Saturday.

“Both teams absolutely went after the game.

“The biggest winner was hurling today, look at all the young people on the field, it is fantastic to see.

“What a magnificent advertisement it was for hurling today, both for Galway, for Tipp, for the general public that are watching.

“Both counties needed it and I’m delighted to get over the line.”

Galway lost little in defeat having played the entire second half and the whole of extra time with fourteen men, as the rule was amended at Congress this year that a team could not revert to fifteen players for extra time.

“We played them back in March and it was the same, an honest Galway team that gave it to us right left and centre, both physically and hurling,” Woodlock added.

“I am delighted we stood up to it and at the end we got a stroke of luck that probably avoided us for long parts of the game.

“We got the last three points of the game but the most pleasing part of it was the way we worked the ball around. We never panicked, showed complete composure, and got the ball to the players that were going to finish for us.”

He added: “We had chances to push on, missed goal chances, and when the game was in the melting pot, we hit a few poor wides which we would be really disappointed with. But that is hurling, that is when the pressure is on.

“This is where myself and the boys try to coach these players to hurl in a competitive environment and when you are five points down or up you still have to stay chomping at the bith.”

Even with the extra man, Tipperary struggled to make it count as Galway really pinned the Premier back, aided by the breeze in the second half of normal time.

“When their goalie could puck the ball down on our fourteen-yard line, they penned us in, in the second half with the wind, despite being a man down,” Woodlock said.

“Overall, I am really delighted with the character shown from the players, I couldn’t have asked for any more. The boys that came off the bench contributed. I am delighted for Austin Duff who came back after a bad injury, and he made a massive impact.

“They won’t die. It is built into them. They hold massive values. They fought to the bitter end, and you can fight all you want but you still have to do the right thing when you get on the ball, and the composure and character shown by the players I thought was fantastic, along with their resilience to never die.

“Galway were physically stronger than us up front, in their full forward line with really good players, we weathered the storm and to come out on top by a point is really nice, it builds more resilience than we already had in the group and sends them in nice and confident to prepare for two weeks time.”