Missed goal chances cost us dear, says Daly

ANTHONY DALY did not want to make excuses for his team’s defeat, but he put forward several reasons to explain it.

He said there was no doubt Tipperary benefited from the two games they played against Limerick and he also cited the weather as a factor. Most of all, he accepted the fact his team didn't take their goal chances.

Minutes after the match, he looked stony-faced as he accompanied selector Fr Harry Bohan to the Tipperary dressing room to pass on his congratulations.

As a player, he always wore his emotions on his sleeve, but a little while later he was more composed. And it wasn't all doom and gloom, although he was worried by defender Gerry O'Grady suffering a possible broken leg. Daly gained some comfort from that fact that, unlike last year's championship opener against Waterford, his team didn't collapse.

"We felt at half-time that we had done most of the hurling in terms of possession, making chances and creating them, but you have got to take them.

"I know it was a difficult day to hurl. Their two goals, they kind of worked them in, but we had at least three good chances, if not four. If you were coming in at half-time a goal up, your tails would be up and you could play a bit more defensive in the second-half."

Instead, he said, some players "lost the plot" when Clare found themselves two goals behind.

Daly said that they never envisaged that Tipperary would be seriously weakened by the absence of Philip Maher.

They knew that his replacement, John Devane, "was going to be capable".

And he wasn't overly surprised by the form of the Tipp full-forward Micheal Webster, the unanimous choice as RTÉ's man of the match.

"I saw him in the League match and I was impressed by him. He's a hardy boy; he did well, to be fair to him. Then again, if a couple of breaks go your way you're a mighty man. If Barry Nugent had tucked away the two goals, they'd be all talking about him this evening.

"We were really focused on getting Cork here in a Munster final not that we dismissed Tipp. I always felt it would be a desperately close, tight match, but it wasn't as close at that. Tipp were much better. Six points is a fair gap, but just two pucks of the ball. They took them. We didn't."

Daly took some solace from the fact that his team kept fighting until the end.

"We didn't collapse, this time last year we collapsed against Waterford. I thought an awful lot of players fought it out to the finish, but I was still disappointed by one or two," he added.

"I suppose the two games definitely helped Tipp. If we were picking the team tomorrow, we'd pick it differently after today. They had the two games to evaluate fellows. I have often said you won't really know if fellows are up to it until they play championship. Fair play to them, it's the third big game they've come out of.

"They'll be no pushover in the Munster final."