Kelly pleased that learnings were applied

By Joe Scully

Tipperary manager Denis Kelly was a lot happier with his sides performance against Kilkenny on Saturday following their five-point victory over their near neighbours.

“Yeah, happy enough with the win, we definitely weren’t happy coming out of here last weekend,” he said.

“We went off and did our bit of work, there was a few bits we had to polish up and we brought a serious work-rate to the game today, we won a lot of rucks. This time of year, there are a lot of rucks, and you need to be winning them. We were beaten up in them last weekend, but today we came out on top with that, but look it’s still only the league, early days and it’s good to get a few points on the board.”

The Borris-Ileigh clubman was also happy with the overall improvement from the Dublin game, particularly from a defensive point-of-view, starting with the forwards.

“They did really well,” he added.

“We probably gave up a lot of chances up front, but the forwards their socks off, and it makes it easier for the defence when the forwards are working so hard.”

Kelly was also delighted with how his side reacted to the half hour delay to the throw in time following the late arrival of match referee Justin Heffernan.

“It can upset a team, but it didn’t today, the girls they all started really well,” he said.

“Justin’s car broke down, which is unfortunate, but once we got going the workrate and savage aggression it was great to watch.”

Kelly now in his third year as manager, was impressed with the character his side showed in seeing out the game after Kilkenny made a late surge and had the gap back to just three points, and were pushing hard.

“That’s Kilkenny whether its hurling or camogie, or whatever they are playing they never give up,” Kelly

added.

“They came back at us here last year and we just held out, and today we hold out again thankfully. We had that bit of a cushion, and we tagged on a couple of scores at a crucial stage and it was good enough to get the job done.”

Up next for the champions is a trip to Galway and Kelly knows how hard it will be.

“That will be really tough,” he said.

“It’s hard to beat Galway at any stage, but playing them in their own back yard, it will be even more difficult, and we flooded a few new girls today and hopefully we can do likewise again next week.”