Tipperary football champions will learn lessons from defeat by Dingle

While obviously disappointed to lose the Munster Club Senior Football Championship semi-final against Dingle, Clonmel Commercials manager Tommy Morrissey said he couldn’t question the performance and attitude of his team.

“I thought they gave everything,” he said after the game in Thurles.

“Over the hour I thought a lot of things went to plan. Again, it was small margins, playing an opponent like Dingle, they have a lot of experience in their team, ultimately it came down to that.

“They were able to get their shooters onto the scoring opportunities. Both teams created similar enough numbers and scoring opportunities and they took more than us, and that was the result on the day”.

When it was put to him that it might have been a different game had Commercials converted one of their goalscoring opportunities in the first half, he said if that happened “it gives a different reflection. And it would have given us a different momentum as well at the time, because they came in the first half and potentially you’re four or five points ahead going in at half time, which is a different outlook on the game.

“I thought we started the second half a little bit slowly, and they were able to get two points in quick succession. We did ultimately claw it back but we failed to go into the lead again, and they were just able to be that bit smarter in that period of the game, which was probably down to the experience of some of the big names they have in the team.

“But again it was small margins, there wasn’t a huge gap there on the day. We could be in here talking about facing into a Munster final just as easily.

“Unfortunately we’re not, but I think the group will learn hugely from it.

“And while there’s disappointment, it’s a different feeling to 12 months ago when we exited at the same stage again (to Newcastle West). Last year we were extremely regretful about our performance, whereas to a man today I couldn’t question any of the players”.

Commercials lined out without Conal Kennedy, who the manager revealed lost his race against time to recover from a shoulder injury sustained in the quarter-final defeat of Newcastle West.

“He needed probably another seven days. He couldn’t take any impact on it, unfortunately it ruled him out. He was a loss, as you know, on a day like today, a big athletic man and he would have been able to cover a lot of ground in the open space, but again that’s sport.

“They (Dingle) would have had their problems from an injury point of view, so you have to be able to manage them.

“Aldo (Matassa) replaced Conal and I thought he did really well, for a guy who has only been coming on in games for the last couple of weeks. It’s very difficult to start a game in that scenario when you haven’t had huge exposure to it but I thought he was outstanding”.

Tommy Morrissey also said that Kevin Fahey, who was replaced by Jamie Peters seven minutes into the second half, was suffering from a calf muscle strain.

“He was carrying it, he didn’t train this week, and it just started to go really tight just prior to half time. He was struggling with it, and we tried to see if it would free up a little bit in the first five minutes of the second half and it didn’t”.