REACTION: Kelly impressed by players who 'righted the wrongs' of first round stalemate
Tipperary camogie manager Denis Kelly spoke after his side's win over Kilkenny on Saturday
Next Saturday’s clash of Galway and Tipperary will see two of the three unbeaten teams in Division 1A of the Very Camogie League go head-to-head, but according to Tipp centre-back Mairéad Eviston, who picked up the Player of the Match accolade in her team’s 0-16 to 1-8 win over Kilkenny on Saturday, the contest will be about much more than that for the Premier County.
The last four of the All-Ireland series has been something of a glass ceiling for Tipperary in recent years. They’ve reached the penultimate round six times in the last seven campaigns, but lost all six, including semi-finals in 2023 (versus Waterford) and 2024 (versus Galway) by a single point.
Next Saturday’s road trip out west will be a chance for Denis Kelly’s crew to continue to develop their mental readiness to shatter that ceiling, in the opinion the Drom & Inch player.
“We get into All-Ireland semis every year so we know that we’re there close enough, we just need to work on closing out games” said Eviston.
“Kilkenny came at us there in the last quarter and we just put our heads down and saw it out, so we just need to keep that attitude for the championship and keep the performances up”.
Niamh Treacy and Caoimhe McCarthy also hurled very well for Tipp as they dominated the second and third quarters of their local derby battle, turning an 0-3 to 0-2 advantage into a commanding 0-12 to 0-4 lead.
Caoimhe Keher Murtagh found the net from close range for Kilkenny on 52 minutes but late points from Grace O’Brien and Róisín Howard ensured that Tipperary sealed a fully-merited win, putting their disappointing draw to Dublin in round one behind them.
“Yeah we definitely righted a few wrongs from last week. Our work rate was very good, we came out on top in the rucks, and we worked on that a lot during the week. It’s a pleasure when the things you work on come out during a match,” said Kelly.
“We probably need to work on our shooting a little bit and some of our ball delivery wasn’t brilliant, but conditions are still tough enough.
"There was a couple of goal chances that we turned down for points, but that’ll come, it’s early in the year.
“There’s not much room for slippage after dropping the point the first day, so we need to go to Galway and grind out a victory. But it’s a great test and we’ll learn a lot about ourselves next weekend” he added.