Dual roles not the cause of Tipperary defeat, says Charlie McGeever

Charlie McGeever was adamant that the involvement of nine members of his football panel on the county’s minor hurling squad had no impact on yesterday’s 20-point final mauling.

The argument that tired bodies and tired minds had contributed to Tipperary’s non-performance was one he simply would not entertain.

“It is definitely something that is not a problem,” he said.

“The reality is that these players are talented, whether they are playing two sports or one. The dual factor is not the issue. The issue for me today was that we got to a point where we just didn’t start in the match. It will be thrown out that they were tired, that they were this, that or the other.

“The bottom line was we didn’t show up on the day.

“From beginning to end, nothing seemed to go right. We just couldn’t pick ourselves up. If we had got to half-time still in touch, we might have had an opportunity, but even the changes at half-time didn’t seem to kick us on either.

“It was damage limitation towards the end. Unfortunately, that is what happens at this age-group. Coming up today we felt everything was right, we worked hard, we had progressed well, we had trained well and it just didn’t happen.”

Central to their downfall, according to McGeever, was Kerry’s midfield superiority.

“If you tried to play it again, you wouldn’t play it as it was. Every kick went where they wanted it to go and their midfield pairing outplayed us from the beginning. Their foundation was the middle of the field and they worked from there. We tried every combination going and it didn’t work out.

“It didn’t matter what we tried, they were winning them, all of the kick-outs.

“It is the one area of the game where we had been excellent all year. But it just didn’t work today.”

He added: “We have all been in a place where we have been well beaten and we kick on from there. That is the beauty of sport, you go out the next day in a new competition as part of a new set-up.

“But look, we have played a year where we have beaten the Leinster and Connacht champions. That says it wasn’t a fluke where we started. Today was a bad day, but there have been good days and we have to bottle those.”