A mixed bag for Philly Ryan in first real test

By Liam Hogan

New Tipperary senior football manager Philly Ryan was pleased to have come away from Carlow with a share of the spoils in the opening round of the National Football League on Saturday night.

Having found it difficult to secure challenge games in the lead up, and with the trail rules, Tipp were poor in the opening half but settled to the task after the break to secure a morale boosting result on the road.

“We were not happy with our performance in the first half,” Philly began.

“We made three changes, some enforced and other just tactical. Jimmy Feehan and Emmett Moloney had knocks and Darragh Brennan was injured coming into the game. The three were doubtful coming into the game. I didn’t think we would get seventy minutes out of Steven O’Brien.

He added: “We hadn’t played challenge games. We were not sure of the new rules. We had a lot of new fellows playing. We are happy. We wanted to come away with this game with something either a draw or a win. We didn’t want to lose it and I think the players showed that resolve in the second half.

“Look we wanted to get a result in our first game and that will keep us ticking along. We are a young panel. We are building and the future is bright.”

The Clonmel Commercials clubman is a fan of the majority of the new trail rules but believes they all need time to bed in.

“I like them personally, not all of them,” he added.

“There is going to be some teething problems. The thirteen-metre free for breaching the half way line is a huge one. The fourth official missed one in the first half. I am not going to complain about it. If I’m honest I thought we were a little bit hard done with the penalties. We will have to look back on it, but I thought was of our lads was taking off the ball before the penalty was given.

“We were in the game for twenty minutes, but we took the foot off the pedal for a little while. That nearly cost us, but we went in at half time and identified the problems. Look we showed some character. We got a goal. They got one but came back. We were eight points down at one stage, but we kept going.”

Tipperary will look to build on this result and performance when they host Longford in Philly Ryan’s home patch of Clonmel Sportsfield this Saturday afternoon, the Leinster county themselves having drawn with Limerick in the opening round game last weekend.