Michael Ryan left disappointed after ‘good contest’

Michael Ryan stopped short of likening yesterday’s Division 1 final defeat to last year’s no-show against Galway but acknowledged his side were “well and truly beaten in the second half”.

Tipperary trailed Kilkenny by 10 points close to the end, six less than their collapse in the Gaelic Grounds 12 months ago, but it was obvious a second successive league decider hurt him.

“Thinking about ourselves, yeah, it’s disappointing. It’s nothing like last year, last year was a non turn-up. This was a good contest, we were in the game and we stayed in the game.