Dunne pleased to have come through tricky encounter

Toomevara manager Ken Dunne has eleven Tipperary senior hurling championship medals to his name and who better to have guiding the latest vintage of senior hurlers from the club into another county final.

By Shane Brophy

Sixteen years have passed since the greyhounds were last in the decider and came into this semi-final under a little pressure admitted their manager.

“Semi-finals can be tricky situations,” he began.

“We were fancied today against Moycarkey, different to other games where we underdogs and it is easier to prepare with that tag.

“The first half I wasn’t overly happy with how we had performed but the two goals put a bit of a gloss on it, two great goals in fairness by Darragh (McCarthy).

“I thought we hurled much better in the second half, now they came back at us again, but we responded really went in the last ten minutes and took control again to push the lead out to five points and eventually got over the line.”

Toomevara played second fiddle for much of the first half, despite going in at half time with a four point lead.

“They are very athletic, very fast and create a lot of space and had us run ragged really,” Dunne said of Moycarkey’s approach.

“We were a little bit standoff-ish I felt but the goals settled us. “Our two wing forwards did well pushing back to help under the puckouts which helped close up the shop a little bit, getting a foothold in the game and we pushed on from there.”

Toomevara’s high workrate has been a notable feature of their progression to date and was epitomised with some of their last ditch tackling which denied Moycarkey/Borris goals at key times.

“They are the fine margins,” Dunne added.

“We got a score off the one Jake Hackett blocked and that was a huge score, which probably sealed it for us. If that had gone in, we would have been in big trouble.”

While Darragh McCarthy claimed a lot of the limelight for their quality of his performances for a player in just his second year of adult hurling, Dunne also lauded the contributions of other young players.

“Hopefully he stays right and fit for us. He is a phenomenal player, but we finished with Josh Powell and Jake Hackett, two eighteen-year-olds as well,” concluded the Toomevara manager.