Woodlock welcomes break to refresh

By Stephen Barry

The Tipperary minor hurlers have got to enjoy some time off after securing back-to-back victories to open their Munster campaign.

Manager James Woodlock felt his rising stars were showing the effects of fatigue in clinging onto a five-point win over Waterford on Thursday evening.

They have the luxury of a three-week break before back-to-back games at home to Clare (May 2nd) and away to Limerick (May 9th) and Woodlock hopes that will provide a valuable chance to refresh and reset for those battles.

“We need a rest,” he admitted.

“We’re going to need a couple of days off to reflect on what we’ve done.

“I do think we need a break to freshen the legs. We were a bit flat tonight. We looked tired and leggy, so we’ll give them a bit of a break and then we’ll come back and focus on the next challenge ahead.”

This performance wasn’t as fluid as the victory over Cork, but the Drom & Inch clubman reflected on their last visit to Fraher Field, a 1-22 to 0-23 victory in 2022, to contextualise the challenge they negotiated.

“I wouldn’t be happy with awful long parts of that but to come down here and get a win is difficult,” he added.

“We saw that two years ago when we came down here on a run to win the All-Ireland final. We only got out of here by the skin of our teeth.

“The same thing is after happening tonight. Waterford are a good side. They lost last week so they were going to throw the kitchen sink at this.

“I am delighted to get out of here with the win really. The scoreboard at the end of the first half was very flattering towards us. We got a couple of lucky scores on the board that put a bit of daylight between us, but we needed it all in the second half.

“There’s a huge gale there and it picked up in the second half. We knew they were going to come back at us. They hit us hard, and they hit us early.

“We were on the back foot for loads of that second half, but I thought the boys showed huge character coming towards the close of the game. It was down to three points, and they pushed it back out to five.”

While the third quarter performance, when outscored 2-5 to 0-2, will be the primary focus for improvement, Woodlock was satisfied with the response.

“They came hard, they pushed up fully on us and made it really difficult,” Woodlock added.

“We struggled to win the ball everywhere. They were coming at us in waves, and we just couldn’t hold them out.

“When we got into the fourth quarter, coming down the home straight, we started to steady a little. The boys that came on finished it off really well. They were really composed on the ball when they came on. We needed that.

“I was just pleased with the final seven or eight minutes when the game was in the melting pot. We found a way to win which was really pleasing.”