Bonnar focuses on the positives from defeat

By Shane Brophy

Tipperary manager Colm Bonnar was keen to focus on the positives despite the defeat by Dublin on Saturday evening.

“I am so proud of the lads that they came back so strongly in the last ten minutes and were really driving at Dublin,” he began.

“It looked like when Dublin got the goal in the second half and went five points up they might push on but our lads stuck in, and worked so hard for each other. They got in tackles and breaks and got back into the game.

“We had opportunities to win the game in the end which shows the bravery of the lads in terms of what they were trying to do.”

He added: “We had a very good start, went six points to two up and kind of lost our way then in terms of what we were trying to do. Dublin came into it, and it was tit for tat then and were a point down at half time, and there wasn’t much in it.

“We started the second half well and scored four of the first five points and were driving at them and playing at the end we wanted to be playing in, but Dublin are a good team, they came at us strongly. They are going well and is their seventh game unbeaten, so it shows the quality they have.

“They were very good on the breaking ball, I’ll have to give them that. Mattie (Kenny) has them very well drilled in terms of what they are doing and we are trying to get there, and having said that I thought for long periods of the final quarter we were coming at them seriously and brought a bit of energy from the bench.”

Bonnar made seven changes from the sides that started the wins over Laois and Kilkenny, with Brian McGrath, Eoghan Connolly, Robert Byrne, Ronan Maher, Paddy Cadell, Seamus Callanan and Paul Flynn all getting their first starts, while John & Noel McGrath, along with Conor Bowe, made their first appearances of the campaign from the bench.

“You have to put it in context as well, we had eight new lads that started the game for us and that is a huge turnover,” Bonnar continued.

“But we are delighted to be giving opportunities to these players. We are seeing huge energy in training and have more lads to see and that is what we are going to be using this league for.

“All we can do it keep doing our best and if the lads keep giving me what I saw today, Tipp is in a good place. Once we can control the energy and what we can bring to this game, that is the most important thing for me.”

One of the aspects of the performance of concern was the lack of penetration in attack, with just nine points from play, with Jake Morris the only starting forward to carry a threat to the Dublin defence.

“Sometimes we didn’t do ourselves justice, and can play the ball in better than that,” Bonnar agreed.

“Maybe that is one of the reasons we fell away a bit at the end of the first half.

“The lads showed a lot of bravery to try and bring the ball through the lines and give the lads inside a better chance, but overall twenty-one points in conditions like this, is a lot of scoring. Unfortunately we didn’t add a great flag and when the opposition get two you need to bring one back but we nearly had one at the very end and it would have been right at the death and it would have been a sweet victory."