McGrath offers no excuses but says sending off ‘harsh’

De La Salle manager Derek McGrath was diplomatic about the first-half sending off which swung this game away from the Waterford champions.

John Keane looked as though he’d been harshly red-carded by referee Shane Hourigan but McGrath wasn’t interested in criticising the official.

“We’d have thought it was a harsh decision, without turning the knife into anybody. We thought it was a turning point.

“Having said that, Thurles looked slicker in possession, they showed great skill while we had to have a very good work rate. That was always the way it was going to be. We’d bring the intensity and the absolute battle, and they’d bring that Tipp slickness. When we got a hold on that we felt we had a chance with our midfield coming into the game in the first-half.

“It was a harsh decision and John’s very upset, but we’ll take the moral high ground.”

Late on it looked like Jake Dillon was grounded for a De La Salle penalty, but Hourigan gave a free the other way.

“Look, he was wrestled to the ground,” said McGrath.

“I don’t want to turn the knife in the chap but being objective, we’d have felt a number of decisions went against us but in the heat of the moment things are hard to see.”

McGrath added that De La Salle had their chances.

“In that crucial period after half-time we had that free and went for a goal — could we have gone for a point? We got a point just afterwards but we felt we needed a goal to cling on to with two against three inside.

“We’re delighted with the spirit. The De La Salle spirit could never be questioned. Tony Considine hinted in the Examiner that it would be more open than people thought. When we saw the rain we were half-delighted but the reality is that we’d like to think we can mix it any way.”

De La Salle stayed on the field afterwards for a lengthy chat amongst themselves.

“We talked about getting back next year,” said McGrath “It’d be a disservice to the lads to describe it as the usual claptrap, but we spoke in terms of the spirit. It’s hard to break down. It’s very hard to get to the end of De La Salle. We pride ourselves on that. We’ll take fellas who have heart and soul all day and work on the skills.”