Manley hails heroes as Rebels heart shines through
It was a win over the old enemy borne out of raw courage and a never-say-die attitude and coach Ger Manley wasnât slow in handing out the bouquets.
âYou wonât get a better minor game than that,â said Manley. âThere was only a puck of a ball between us at the finish and Tipp are still in this championship, make no mistake about that.
âOne of the great characteristics of our team is wholeheartedness. They never give up. Tipp got the run on us early on but we stuck to our guns and pegged them back.
âTo go in a point up at half time was brilliant after the shaky start we had. We conceded too many easy frees and got punished, and I said to them at half time to be patient and keep plugging away.
âTo be fair we created at least three goal chances that on another day weâd have taken. The result will stand to us. They are a very good team and there is still more in them.
âHowever, Tipp havenât gone away and will have a big say in the All-Ireland series. We could end up meeting them in the final and that would he some match.
âUppermost in our minds will be what happened in 2006. We beat Tipp in the Munster final but they came through to win the All-Ireland. We donât want that to happen again.
âOur defence was magnificent with our half back line the rock on which we built our victory. There is an excellent spirit in the camp and they are now showing the benefit of being together since January.
âThe defeat by Clare was a wake-up call. We recovered well to beat Waterford and today showed how much we have improved since that first outing. With a couple of injured players to come back in weâll give the All-Ireland a right goâ.
Tipp manager Declan Ryan accepted his side were beaten by a better team on the day.
âWe are disappointed, but you have to hand it to Cork. They were well prepared and dominated in a lot of areas, something we will have to look at for the All-Ireland series.
âA lot of our players didnât come up to the mark, and that is also something weâll examine. Hopefully, we can remedy the mistakes, but itâs not going to be easy.â
Ryan made nothing of a Cork point that wasnât. âYou get those kind of decisions and Iâm not offering it as an excuse.
âIt will be difficult to come back from a defeat like that but these are young men and I have the utmost confidence in them to bounce back.â