Tipperary manager Liam Cahill before the Allianz Hurling League Division 1A final match between Tipperary and Cork at SuperValu Páirc Uí Chaoimh in Cork. Photo by Piaras Ó Mídheach/Sportsfile
By John Harrington
Tipperary manager, Liam Cahill, admitted his side were well beaten by Cork in today’s Allianz Hurling League Division 1A Final.
The Premier County shipped three first-half goals and never looked like getting back into the game thereafter.
“Disappointed,” said Cahil. “Cork deserved winners on the day, to be honest. I suppose as the saying goes, goals win matches.
“Definitely there, 15-20 minutes into the second half, they hit us with three goal opportunities and converted them. It was an uphill task after that, to be honest. But that's what good teams do.
“This Cork team, after building momentum over the last two years under Pat Ryan, and transitioning all these underage successes through, they look like real formidable opponents now, and a formidable team to go on and go after Munster and the All-Ireland. They're not favourites to win the All-Ireland for nothing.”
Cork’s ability to win their own puck-out in the first-half was one of the keys to their victory and Cahill admitted it was something that Tipperary struggled to cope with.
“Yes, I think the mid-range puck out, obviously Tim O'Mahony in particular, his possession stats were very high. Too high for my liking at half-time and getting that out-ball out to the flanks to Barrett and these guys.
“Cork got massive traction off of that. Look, we didn't counteract it obviously and it kind of opened up channels there for Cork to run through and hit us for the three goals that they did. But I thought in the second half we dealt with that a bit better.
“Again, with the advantage of the breeze on our behalf, we shored it up a lot better than they did. Granted, the scoreline was big at half-time and you could easily say that Cork might have took the foot off the gas.
“From where I was standing, the work rate was really good from my fellas. They didn't panic, they stayed chipping away at the scoreboard as I said earlier. It was just a good day out for us just to gain more experience, more work.
“But it does leave us with little things to tweak as we head into the Munster Championship.”
Cahill said he was proud of how his team battled in the second half of the match and think’s their glass is half-full rather than half-empty as they now look towards the Munster Hurling Championship.
“I think where we are versus where we were, we have a lot more versatility to our play. I think when we look out now at this current Tipperary team, while we're far from the finished article, we have a lot of players that are interchangeable.
“I thought our full back line, - I know we give away three goals there - were excellent because they were peppered there with ball for 15 minutes before half-time and they really went toe-to-toe with three of the best inside forwards in the country at the moment and either one of them can come out, either one of the corner men can come out to a wing and vice-versa can swap back inside.
“It's all good for us as regards options, it's just now I suppose to start really creating chances up front and especially green flags, they're the ones that are going to get these teams over the line in tight matches to get you out of the gap, so today it was disappointing that we didn't create a proper goal chance in my opinion.”
