Tipp minor football boss praises players as improvements in performances continue at minor

Reflecting on another disappointing championship exit to Cork after the game, Tipp boss John McNamara felt the game hinged on small periods where Cork showed their scoring prowess, and Tipp couldn’t withstand those moments.

“You have to take your hat off to Cork on how clinical they were. They saw their opportunities to get goals and they took them,” he admitted.

“That’s Cork, they’re famous for having that ability but it’s something that we can learn from. You couldn’t fault them (the players), I thought we matched them in most aspects all around the field, but we just fell down at different points and goals win games.

After playing so well for some 40 minutes where they took an early second half lead, fatigue seemed to rear its head as the Tipp work rate seemed to drop and opened up space for the dangerous Cork forwards.

“A little bit of tiredness creeped in there.

“We started to open up a little bit more. We had a defensive blanket that worked so hard and at times Cork probably spotted that we were starting to tire and started to loop us with a longer pass. In the first half, we had swamped up the space where that couldn’t happen.

“Last year we had lost the game after ten minutes whereas this time around we lost the game in the last ten, so that has to be seen as real progress.

“The way I looked at that was that it was the best thing that could have happened to us, because it was the worst case scenario and it just shook off the nerves and lads were forced to get on with it.

“You saw the response, they just came back into the game and levelled it and that’s what Cork were shook from, that we didn’t lie down and drop our heads and say the game was over. We kept going.

“I think I said it before, people need to realise these lads are only 15, 16 years of age. They’re only kids. This is pure development and we seem to be watching them and thinking they’re seniors.

“They’re developing all the time and the setup of this competition shows that it is useful for teams like ourselves to get more and more game time into the boys, and I think we now have a lot more incentive for three years time at U20 level if we meet Cork again. We won’t fear them,” he finished.