‘We thought we had match won,’ admits disappointed Doyle
When manager Michael Doyle was asked afterwards if he was disappointed, he gave the response the question merited, saying: "What other reaction would you want. We thought we had the match won."
Likewise, selector Liam Sheedy a loser himself on the field in the 2000 Allianz decider against Galway in
Limerick rejected the suggestion there was any satisfaction to be gained after such an epic contest.
"Everybody wants to win. We wanted to get the cup and we did everything we could to get it."
For obvious reasons, nobody on the Tipperary side was more dejected than Thomas Dunne after his late miss. But, typical of the team's former inspirational captain, he was facing up to it manfully.
"I feel a certain amount of responsibility after missing a chance like that from a good position. It's disappointing from my point of view," he said.
"To lose a game we were in control of by a point is a sickener. It was a great game of hurling and all that, but we were very disappointed to lose the way we did.
"Kilkenny are an outstanding team and there's no taking away from that, but we felt we were as good as them today.
"But there's very strong character in this team. We showed it today at certain times. May 18 is the number one priority for us now."
Meanwhile, Doyle had obvious concerns about the concession of so many goals attributing them to mistakes on the field.
"Our half-forward line were too far up the field. We didn't cut down the space," he explained.
Another lesson to be learned is that games last for 70 minutes-plus. However, his main worry was the injuries suffered by Philip Maher (knee) and Noel Morris (rib) which could conceivably put them both out of the Clare game on Sunday week.
"We won't really know about Philip until he has a scan. Noel came off because the injury was restricting his movement," he said.
Believing his team could have triumphed if Dunne had managed to score, he credited Henry Shefflin with scoring a very good winning point.
"To be fair, Henry caught a super ball out of the air. There must have been four or five players under it."
The Tipp manager questioned the legality of Kilkenny's third goal (scored by DJ Carey), on the basis that it was a square goal. However, he accepted that it was now history.
"It was probably a great game for supporters out there. But, in the long run we have lost and we might as well lose by one or 10. When you lose, you lose.
"We had an eight point lead, but with that kind of a lead in hurling anything can happen. Brian Cody said that when he came into the dressing room.
"When one or two goals go in you are on the back foot. After that happened, the momentum went completely to Kilkenny. But I couldn't say one word against our lads. Even when Kilkenny came back at us we came back at them again. Only for a super save, John Carroll had another goal.
"Maybe if that went in we had the game won. We'll learn from it. At the end of the day we might have lost the league final but we're still in the championship which is the main one we are looking at."
Doyle says it's essential that his players get over the disappointment quickly, that they get their heads up. "The 18th of May is two weeks away and that is all we are worried about now."
Sheedy felt that while a draw might have been a fair result, probably the last thing they wanted was a replay.
"I said last week a game that like this would be worth four training sessions. I still wouldn't change my view on that providing our injured players will be okay to play against Clare."
