Busy schedule exhausted players, claims Hogan

A DIPLOMATIC Ken Hogan had a subtle message for the Tipperary County Board and the clubs after yesterday’s narrow defeat in the second of the Guinness Munster hurling semi-finals in Pairc Uí Chaoimh, when he said the county players deserve better treatment in the middle of a busy club schedule.

The Tipp manager was of the view that his team suffered from over-activity in recent weeks. "They felt dead on their feet in the last 10 minutes," he said.

Interestingly, while the Tipp manager was convinced that they should have been allowed another point, he wasn't prepared to make a big issue of it.

He was responding to a question about the early second half shot from Eoin Kelly, taken out near the left wing.

"It was definitely a point. Eoin felt it was", he said, indicating that there should be a better system in place to adjudicate on such issues.

"Eoin was full sure it was a point and the crowd behind reacted as if it was. But, in fairness to Waterford, I wouldn't begrudge them their victory."

Overall, Hogan was more preoccupied with the situation he and his fellow selectors found themselves in recent weeks. "I'm all for club hurling, but something has to give.

"Our fellows just weren't fresh enough going into the game. And we paid dearly for that. The clubs were given the opportunity to express their views and we wrote a letter to the county board expressing our concern. I respect the clubs, but we wanted one free weekend and we didn't get that.

"I'd have to compliment our physios and our masseurs. They're the people who got our players fit to play. We had Eamonn Corcoran and Conor Gleeson out last weekend and Mark O'Leary fractured a finger playing with his club last Tuesday night. And lads are out playing championship hurling again on Wednesday night," he said.

Looking at the game overall, Hogan felt that his team never really settled and that the surfeit of club games was a big factor in that.

"The lads wanted to win so badly. It's just a pity that we didn't pull it off. The most satisfying feature from my point was the performance of the four new lads who were in, They played so well, adapted so well and were so courageous," he said.

While chances hadn't come easily for his team, he believed that they still had opportunities to win the game. "Benny Dunne made a great run in late in the second half. A goal didn't come off it, when a point could have been taken. He was fouled on the way in, but in fairness to the referee I'm sure he was probably trying to give him the advantage.

"Waterford had a lot of opportunities. Having said that our back line in the second half really steadied up."

Looking ahead, the popular Tipp manager expressed the view that it will be difficult to renew their challenge through the qualifier competition. "We'll have to work on that. It's not going to be easy. We'll just have to grind our teeth and keep going," he said.