COSTLY TURNOVERS IN possession and a failure to take those goal chances that fell their way.
Those were the recurring themes that stood out for David Power as he provided his post-match review of Tipperary’s All-Ireland semi-final loss.
It proved a convincing defeat for Power’s charges as they were wiped out in the second quarter by Mayo yet those trends sparked regrets for the Tipperary boss.
“We’d two serious goal chances first couple of minutes, had we got them it’s probably a different game. We scored 3-13, I’d say we could have left another five, six goals behind us.
“But also we turned over way too much ball in the first half. 3-6 came from our turnovers. You can’t gift good teams those kind of chances. Mayo have some very, very good players.
“We got a lot of joy out of the high diagonal ball. We had looked at different areas it’s just unfortunate we didn’t take those chances. I just felt we needed to get a good start. For the underdog you have to get that good start put a bit of pressure on the favourite team and that was a thing we worked on and unfortunately it just didn’t pay off today.”
Facing into the second half was an unenviable position for Tipperary to be in as they trailed by 16 points and that margin had widened further to 21 points by the 50th minute. But Power hailed the persistence of his team as they kept attacking and managed to outscore Mayo in the latter period.
“We went in at half-time, it wasn’t a case of shouting and roaring at them. We didn’t want to leave, we won the Munster final two weeks ago and we didn’t want that type of performance to define our season. I thought we kept playing the right way. To be fair we set a target to win the second half, no matter what it is and that’s what they did.”
After the game the Tipperary squad gathered near Hill 16 where captain Conor Sweeney laid a wreath in memory of the Bloody Sunday victims.
“That was a thing I spoke with the county board, we only told the players during the week,” said Power.
“We didn’t make a big deal out of it because again we just wanted to concentrate on the game. Again the players have been fantastic, I want to thank the GAA. It was great to have the 41 players there today for them. They have trained so hard over the last two months. The last six, seven weeks has been a great journey for Tipperary football.
“I think it will be huge for Tipperary football in terms of the goodwill that has been out there, seeing all of the children in different schools wearing the Tipp jersey. I think young people will want to start playing football for Tipperary. So I think that is going to be massive.”
When reflecting on the season, Power feels the outlook remains positive for Tipperary football but they must immediately strive to get out of Division 3 of the league.
“This can’t be just a once off. We need now to be heading to Division 2 next year, that has to be a target. We need to be playing against those teams. It’s a huge learning curve for us there. I wasn’t expecting this to be honest to get to an All-Ireland semi-final this year. This is the start, we must build on this. The big thing for Tipp football is we have a habit of going back, we need to go forward now.
“As a group we can get stronger, we can improve. Already the players are setting their targets. Ultimately that is what it is all about. We were looking at all types of scores at half time but the players they kept at it and I’m very proud of them. Where we were at the start of the year, it has been an incredible journey.”
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