Ryan salutes ‘super’ display
Like the 36,654 punters that filed through the turnstiles yesterday, the Tipperary manager had been left spellbound by the level of hurling his players produced and was eager to shower them with praise at the final whistle.
“It was just a super performance from the players,” he said.
“I’m delighted with the way they went about their business today and everything seemed to go right on the day. We won plenty of good ball out around the middle of the field and in our half-back line early. They delivered some great ball in and some days they end up in the back of the net, some days they go wide. Today, everything seemed to go right for Tipperary and it was one of those days.”
The star of the show was corner-forward Lar Corbett who continues to produced dazzling scoring feats. After bagging a hat-trick in last September’s All-Ireland final, he went one better here and raised four green flags.
“He’s an incredible player when he gets the right type of ball,” admitted Ryan.
“We know we have scoring potential there in our forward line and if we get them enough ball we can do some damage. The ball seemed to fall right for us today, it didn’t seem to fall for Waterford at all. Thankfully our guys took the breaks when they came their way.”
Tipperary’s half-back line of John O’Keeffe, Conor O’Mahony and Padraic Maher provided the platform for their dominance.
“We’ve had some criticism in that department in the last couple of games, but I think they showed what good men they are, they all stood up today and they played as well as they could.”
The 12 points Waterford wing-forward Pauric Mahony registered from placed balls was a slight area of concern for Ryan.
“It’s something we worked on earlier in the season, and I think we only conceded eight against Clare, which was a big plus for us.
“It’s obviously something we can work on for the next day. It’s important to have things you can work on, and it was considerable how many we conceded.”
Tipperary’s success means they will sidestep the backdoor minefield and progress straight through the front door to the All-Ireland semi-finals.
“There is no doubt about that. Every team that was playing this year, they started out in the championship wanting to go through the front door.
“Tipperary were no different in that regard. I’m just delighted for our backroom team and the players, who have put in a huge effort to get themselves to the level they were at today. Five weeks to an All-Ireland semi-final now and we know we have a bit of work to do to keep the feet on the ground.”
Before that All-Ireland semi-final, Ryan and his players must manage the escalating hype that will surround them after this level of performance.
“I’m sure there will be plenty of hype after today’s performance. It’s new territory for Tipp in a lot of ways, to score that many goals.
“There is going to be a certain amount of talk, but we have a lot to look forward to. But we’re lucky. I think we have a lot of experienced players in the group and a lot of the younger guys are used to winning. The job will be to perform at our optimum level the next day we go out as well.”
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