Dublin will take second chance, says Boland

They may just have blown their cover but Shay Boland is confident his Dublin minors can still seal victory at the second attempt.

Largely written off approaching yesterday’s final, Boland’s youngsters gave a performance to educate their critics. Yet in the manager’s eyes it’ll all be for nothing if they don’t claim a first minor crown in 47 years later this month, something he’s optimistic about.

“I have huge belief in those lads,” said Boland.

“And they have huge belief in themselves. We didn’t get there in the end this time but these things happen. We’ll be raring to go the next day and hopefully we’ll get the result the next day. The glass is definitely still well full.”

Despite being awarded a controversial late free to equalise, Dublin were generally on the wrong end of the referee’s calls, leading to the concession of 1-11 from placed balls.

“Either we play a different brand of hurling up here than they do down in Munster or we’re just being legitimately penalised for indiscretions,” said Boland.

“I just felt they got a lot of points from frees, no question about it. But maybe a lot of them were genuine fouls.”

Boland heaped praise on Paul Winters who took advantage of the late free to shoot the leveller for Dublin.

“This is his second All-Ireland minor final now so he’s well used to it,” added the boss. “I would have put my house on him to score it.”

Tipperary manager William Maher had every opportunity afterwards to criticise referee Colm Lyons for handing Winters that free but declined.

“The bottom line is it is a difficult job to referee an All-Ireland final,” said Maher. “A free was given for over carrying but look, there’s nothing we can do now.”

For Maher, it was more about the work his side need to put in now before the replay. “We didn’t score from play in the first-half, that’s something we normally pride ourselves on. We have loads to work on. But I think our favourites tag is well gone at this stage. Dublin were the best team that we played this year and we are delighted to get the opportunity to play them again.”