By John Harrington

Galway footballer Gary Sice believes Tipperary “knew more than they should have” about the Tribesmen’s tactics ahead of last Sunday’s All-Ireland Quarter-Final.

It was quite obvious that Tipp had their homework done on the Connacht Champions, particularly when it came to kick-out strategies and how to neutralise their much vaunted midfield.

And Sice admits he was surprised by the level of intelligence the Tipperary players had on the Galway game-plan.

“They seemed to know an awful lot about us,” said Sice. “Even by the talk on the field, they seemed to know an awful lot about us and maybe too much.

“They knew more than they should have known I think. That's the name of the game, you use what you have. You have to admire them for what they've done, they've had a really good summer themselves. They've played some really good football and they have some really good footballers.

“They're going to be a thorn in the side for whoever gets them next."

Tipperary will be huge underdogs going into their All-Ireland semi-final regardless of whether it’s Tyrone or Mayo they play there. But Sice has warned whoever faces Tipperary would be foolish to take their challenge for granted.

“They're good footballers and they have a good system and they're really enjoying their football,” he said. “They're in a good place at the moment. Momentum is massive in Championship, especially going through the Qualifiers. We've done the Qualifiers a lot and momentum is key. They have a lot of it now at the moment.

“They're going to go back to a place where everyone is going to be giving them only the best of views and the best of things to say. So they're as dangerous now as anybody."

Galway went into Sunday’s All-Ireland Quarter-Final with big expectations after an impressive Connacht Championship campaign, and Sice admits he still doesn’t know why it all went so terribly wrong against Tipp.

“Sometimes it's grand when it's only a point or two and you can start pointing at things here and there and say, yeah, that went wrong. But Sunday kind of imploded on us and, to be honest with you, I couldn't have seen it coming and I'm still not entirely sure what happened.

“Such is life. We'll go back. If you had told me before the Championship started that we'd beat Mayo in Castlebar and take out a Connacht Championship, it probably would have been seen as a fairly good year. But opportunities like last weekend don't arise all the time. We'll have to go again and just go back to the drawing board and see how we get on.

Galway’s Connacht title was their first since 2008, and Sice doesn’t believe the progress they made as a team this year has been undone by the defeat to Tipp.

“I don't know how big a set-back it is,” he said. “I think it's going to be a bit of a rejigging of what we were doing. I don't think we were doing an awful lot wrong, I just think that maybe we ran into something that was the  total antithesis of what we were doing. They were very free-flowing and they ran at us and they changed things up.

“We'll go back and refine what we've been doing. I don't think we're doing an awful lot wrong. I think we played some really good football this summer. Something that we haven't been doing in a while.

“And I think there was an awful lot of confidence bred into the squad. Kevin has brought an awful lot to the table and I think everyone in the group enjoyed it and is looking forward to the next bit of the grind. 

“It's a learning process and Kevin is developing new there so we'll trust in what he's doing and I trust 100 per cent in what he's doing.”

*** Gary Sice was speaking at the launch of the 2016 GAA Health & Wellbeing Theme Day, “Little things can improve your game” taking place on August 28th in Croke Park. Go here for more information. **