‘We’re in complete shock’
Callanan described the result as heartbreaking: “Things were going well; the warm-up, everything. We were happy going into the game and then for that to happen to us. We’re in complete shock.
“I can hardly put it into words. We looked a bit off the pace.
“I don’t know what to say; I don’t know what happened out there but you can’t take it away from them – the better team did win. Heartbreaking.”
Callanan, held to just a single point from play, pinpointed Cork’s greater hunger levels and huge intensity as key factors in Tipp’s biggest championship defeat since 2003.
“They were everywhere. Any time one of us got on the ball, there were three of them there. They worked fierce hard to get the win.”
Tipperary must now go through the back door for the first time since 2007 and Callanan admitted: “It is unusual but whatever doesn’t kill you can only make you stronger. It’s tough to come out the wrong side of it but look, you have to be positive about these things as well. We’ll go back on Tuesday night and prepare for the qualifiers. We’ll take that route and it will still take a great team to stop us.”
Tipp found themselves on the wrong end of a 5-17 to 1-12 result at Nowlan Park in ‘09 and Callanan said: “That was a lot worse. You don’t become a bad team overnight. We’ll have a chat on Tuesday night and put the heads down again for a few more weeks for the qualifiers. By no means is our year over – we’ll be back.”
At half-time yesterday, Tipperary trailed by just two points, having been outhurled in the first half.
Callanan felt at the midway point that the visitors were still in with a great chance of victory&: “Two points down at half-time, we hadn’t really hurled and we were still in the game. They had a lot of hurling done but things didn’t work out for us in the second half. The Aisake goal put the clincher on it but we’ll be back. Hopefully we’ll get the chance to meet them again.”
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