'Maybe a little bit of experience helped us through today,' according to Tipperary hurler!

Tipperary’s win wasn’t pretty, but it was effective. Speaking after the final whistle, Breen summed up the feeling in the camp: exhausted but satisfied.

“I’m physically and emotionally wrecked,” he said. “But I suppose out there we just had to go for it, like it took bravery at times.”

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The match swung back and forth, and while mistakes were made, Breen stressed the importance of resetting and sticking to the task.

“You know you're looking for short puck outs there after making a mistake, and you just have to get on with it.”
A turning point came when Tipperary’s bench began to influence the game. Energy and fresh legs added urgency when it mattered most.

“It takes those big moments, those big plays, and our subs getting in there as well, like you know, they just give energy to the whole thing,” Breen said.

“As a unit, then we just drive forward, so it was really encouraging when the boys got on the field. Even when Tynan got in for a cameo in the first half, he made a block straight away.”

The Tipperary crowd played their part too, something the players clearly noticed.

“You speak of energy from the crowd, like that was a serious Tipp support we had out there today, you could hear them all the way through.

“You know, whether it be a block, a point, and when the goals came it was deafening,” Breen added.

Going down to 14 men forced a shift in approach, but Breen felt the team adapted well.

“When it went to 14 men you just have to be a bit smarter and you have to be a bit braver because you are down the man; your use of the ball it has to be a bit better, so that’s what you do - raise your level in those scenarios.”

Tipperary have shown that resilience before, and Breen felt that past experience helped settle the group.

“We’ve seen that before, which is great; we’ve seen it this year and the last time we got to the final, we saw that,” he said.

“So I suppose maybe a little bit of experience helped us through today.”

There was also recognition of the quality of the opposition, and the level required to deal with them.

“Yeah, they have six serious forwards there and you know when you get to this stage of the championship it’s never going to be an easy day when you’re up against top class opposition who like to move and who like to find space and drag it all over the place, or who can handle the ball really well,” he said. “It’s never easy, but you just have to do your best.”

The last few years have been stop-start for Tipp, but Breen pointed out that belief in the group never faded.

“Yeah, the finish of those seasons, it was hard to see where we were going,” he admitted.

“But as we kick-started each campaign, like the last two years, we always believed we could get up to this arena and perform here.

“And it wasn’t big, massive fixes, it was small tweaks - we knew we had the players there.”

He also gave credit to the management for steering the group in the right direction.

“This man, you know, he was putting it on the players and saying we drove it, but no more than he did,” Breen said. “He had to put this plan in place and guide us up here, and you know, everyone together, we did it.”

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