‘If they were men they would come through it. Some did. Others didn’t’

TIPPERARY boss Babs Keating made little effort to hide his disappointment at the failure of his side to win yesterday’s Munster SHC semi-final at the Gaelic Grounds, Limerick.

Keating was furious his side failed to make their numerical advantage count following the dismissal of Limerick skipper Damien Reale after 20 minutes for a late pull on Eoin Kelly.

Said an angry Keating: “It was a game we lost given we had an extra man for a good period of the match. We should have been able to win it from that position but we didn’t and we are now getting a second chance on our home ground next Saturday. But that is not going to be easy particularly in the light of the way Limerick played to earn the draw.”

He continued: “We always knew it was going to be a battle. You never get anything easy off Limerick. We had a couple of newcomers playing their first Munster championship game and coming down here was going to be a real testing ground for them.

“If they were men they would come through it. Some did. Others didn’t.”

“I suppose the real winner was the Munster championship itself. It was badly in need of a good game and we got that out there today, but I would have preferred to be going home winners now and not having to prepare again for a replay.”

Asked if he felt, after Limerick had been reduced to 14 players, that his side would go on and win the game, Keating said: “We struggled to cope with the way they came at us, forcing us into errors and never giving us time on the ball. Fair play to them for using that tactic so effectively.”

Keating held his hand up and said that tactically the Tipp sideline were wrong to loft high balls in on top of the Limerick defence which gave his attack little chance to win clean possession.

“Playing Eoin Kelly at full forward was forced on us because he too was just coming back from injury he picked up in a league game against Kilkenny. He couldn’t risk him on the wing because of his fitness levels.”

Keating made light of the decision to take Kelly off the frees early in the game. “We wanted to give him a break and not to have come down the field all the time to take the frees, particularly as Willie Ryan is such an expert freetaker. He did nothing wrong with them.”

Babs refused to accept his side has blown their chance. “We’ll regroup just as we did before. This Munster semi-final isn’t over by a long shot.”

Eamon Buckley, who made his Munster championship debut yesterday, said the conditions played a huge factor in the outcome.

“We have been training since last November so fitness should not have been a problem, but you cannot legislate for the kind of day we had, and it took a while to settle into the game. I’m not offering the heat as an excuse for not winning the match. It was 15 against 14 for over 50 minutes and in that kind of scenario you would fancy your chances, but it didn’t work out that way. In fairness to Limerick you wouldn’t think they were down a man the way they came at us in the second half. They used the ball well, worked their socks off and a draw was a fair result.

“It was a most enjoyable experience and hopefully I did enough to keep my place for the replay.”

Eoin Kelly though disappointed at the result was not surprised by Limerick’s tenacity. “Since my U21 days in 2001, there was never more than puck of a ball between us. Draws, replays, wins, losses by a point or two, today was another of those games and I guarantee you it will be the same again Saturday in the replay. We could never put four points between us. If we did we would have probably gone on to win it, but if we can remedy the mistakes we made, I would be confident of finishing the job the next day.”