Ralph thrilled by Tipp’s fighting qualities

By Joe Scully

Relief and pride were the overwhelming feelings of Tipperary minor manager Ray Ralph after his side came through an epic All-Ireland quarter final against Wexford on Sunday.

“We will have to go down and get the defibrillator, that’s how I’m feeling after that,” said the Moycarkey/Borris clubman.

“They are a great bunch of girls; they dug it out there in the end.

“It was a super game of camogie, two very strong teams, and look Wexford were very good, very strong, and our girls showed a lot of resolve and really went at it.

“They didn’t give away a free in the last minute when we were under a bit of pressure, went up the field and Caoimhe (Stakelum) got on the end of it and put it over the bar.”

Ralph was also very happy with some of the individual performances especially a couple of players who made their first starts of the championship after impressing in training in recent weeks.

“We had to move Eva (Ralph) onto Emma McCarthy who was causing all sorts of problems and also Leanna (Coppinger) onto Ciara Whelan who was deadly all game and I thought both managed the very well.

“Sarah McLoughlin was outstanding too, and you had Leah Maher and Kate Dowling, both who got their baptism of fire today, and both were excellent. They both put their hands up during training and got their chance today and took it.”

Looking ahead, the Ralph feels his side won’t fear Cork in the All-Ireland semi-final in two weeks’ time and is looking forward to the challenge his side will face.

“We have to travel for the semi-final, and yeah, it will be a difficult game, but look it’s super, we have two more weeks of training, and we’re still in it and we will go anywhere and have a right crack at it.

“We won’t be getting too far ahead of ourselves either, just be focusing on the semi-final, we will do as we always do and take it one game at a time, and not be looking forward to an All-Ireland final date or anything like that just yet, as that would be a very dangerous game,” concluded the Tipperary manager.