Creedon looks to the future with Tipp

The final whistle barely finished echoing around Páirc Uí Chaoimh when Tipperary boss Peter Creedon was trying to evaluate his side’s heartbreaking loss.

Creedon was thinking of the future, though.

“If we can hold onto the likes of Steven (O’Brien) and Colin (O’Riordan), the younger players, we’ll make progress, but it’s hard going,” he said.

“Our bench probably didn’t have the impact theirs had, and they’re factors. I thought the ref gave one or two handy ones, but the ref is always going to be a scapegoat for calls. Ultimately it was in our own hands. We had the opportunities. Even Ciarán, who I thought was man of the match, had a handpass which went to a man in the corner. That’s sport.

“Maybe that’s what keeps the romance of the GAA alive, that the 10/1 outsider can come and give the favourite a rattle.”

Creedon said the emotional investment had been so big in last Saturday’s effort, that he’d have to see what shape the players are in this week.

“We’ll have to see how we recover. We put an awful lot into the league, into the Limerick game, into tonight.

“It might be easy to recover from a hiding, which sounds silly, but we left a lot out there. And there are demands on Steven and Colin for the U21 hurlers as well. Another two or three players are coming behind, if we can bring them through... maybe we’ve arrived as a force in Munster. Maybe. The next couple of years will tell whether we have or not.”