‘We left nothing on the field’

TEN minutes after John Sexton’s whistle brought an end to a titanic contest, Liam Sheedy was still enduring mixed emotions.

One the one hand he was experiencing a sense of pride in how his team had performed – how ‘they had left nothing on the field’ in pushing the All-Ireland champions to the limit. And, trying to balance that with the disappointment of losing wasn’t easy.

“It was surreal out there, because people we saying ‘well done.’ But we lost a League final. We are very disappointed,’’ he commented.

“We had chances, but the lads dug in and you can’t fault them for that. Both teams are amateurs and with 90 or 95 minutes on the clock bodies were dropping all over the place. These guys have to get up and go to work on Tuesday morning – they’d have to be up tomorrow if it wasn’t a Bank holiday.’’

Setting out to prove that the March 22 hammering from Tipp in Nowlan Park hadn’t revealed ‘the true Tipperary,’ Sheedy said it was insulting to his squad to have been assessed on this particular game. “We played 490 minutes of hurling during the National League and we were being judged on 35 of those.

“That hurt us a lot because these guys have a lot of hurling played over the last two years to try to be the best they can be every day. Some days it doesn’t work out, but anyone who has played sport knows what it will be like. There’ll be good days and bad days.’’

And, for all the satisfaction to be taken from their gutsy display, Sheedy put supporters on notice that much tougher tests lie ahead. Recalling that they lost by a point in Croke Park ‘in a rip-roaring match’ in the 2003 final he added: “four weeks later we were dumped out of the Munster Championship by Clare.

“So, let’s not any of us get carried away. It’s League and the Championship is a whole new ball game. The players are under no illusions about the challenge that lies ahead in four weeks time (when they play Cork here in the Munster championship).”