O’Neill fury as ‘sloppiness’ almost costs Kildare dearly
Cian O’Neill cut a frustrated figure after watching his side almost let a crucial win slip through their fingers on Saturday.
Kildare led 1-9 to 0-5 with 10 minutes remaining and seemed to be cruising towards a comfortable win, but Tipperary turned the game on its head with a 2-1 burst to level matters going into injury time.
Kildare rallied, however, with points from Adam Tyrrell and Neil Flynn, before Tipp substitute Liam Boland scored a point with the last kick of the game.
That left O’Neill raging against his team but also against referee Noel Mooney following a bizarre second half incident. As a long ball was played in towards Conor Sweeney he called for the mark and the referee blew his whistle - however Sweeney then fumbled his catch. The referee seemed to acknowledge his error but rather than throw the ball up, allowed Sweeney to take the mark and a point resulted.
O’Neill blasted: “What happened we’ve seen happen lots of times with the new rules, it shouldn’t happen but it does, but what I’ve seen in every game, and I watch five or six games a week preparing for teams, the ref stops the play and throws up the ball. Today, he told the lads he made a mistake but still gave them a mark.
That was a close game and they ended with a 20 metre free, that’s not on. We all make mistakes, I make mistakes on the sideline, but you acknowledge them and do the right thing after. He acknowledged his mistake but still gave the mark.”
Despite that, the referee wasn’t the main source of O’Neill’s frustration as his side almost let a nine-point second half lead slip away.
Kildare’s concentration seemed to wane during the second half and there were moments, such as Neil Flynn kicking a 14 metre free wide and the team coughing up possession from their own free inside the 45 which led to Tipperary’s second goal that summed up their sloppiness.
“We were very clear and defined about our game plan there and although we were slow to get started, our second quarter was excellent. Then it was almost a totally different game in the second half because of the conditions and we knew that Tipp were going to come at us.
“We were very clear about what we needed to do and I thought for 10, 12 minutes we actually did that even if we gave the ball away stupidly a couple of times. The fourth quarter, I think it was because the margin wasn’t getting any closer that it almost sunk into the psyche that the game was over and they started doing their own thing and that’s the most disappointing thing for us as a management team.
"We went off script, went very individual and made some critical errors. This is a game that we should have had wrapped up a lot earlier and due to our own doing, our own decision making and our own mistakes we almost let the match slip away. Everyone, not just me, of us are angry and annoyed at that performance,” he added.
Fergal Conway’s 34th-minute goal helped Kildare into a 1-7 to 0-2 half time lead and they further extended that lead to nine in the second half but Tipperary almost made them pay for their sloppiness. Despite that, the win means Kildare still have a chance of promotion going into the final game away to Donegal on Sunday.
Scorers for Kildare:
N Flynn 0-5 (2fs, 1’45), F Conway 1-0, K Feely 0-2, J Hyland 0-1, T Moolick 0-1, C Healy 0-1, A Tyrrell 0-1.
Scorers for Tipperary:
L Boland 1-1, D O’Meara 1-0, C Sweeney 0-3 (2 frees, 1mark), L McGrath 0-1f, L Casey 0-1, B Fox 0-1.
KILDARE:
M Donnellan; D Hyland, M O’Grady, M Hyland; C O’Donoghue, E Doyle, P Kelly; K Feely, T Moolick; F Conway, P Brophy, K Cribbin; N Flynn, C Healy, J Hyland.
Subs:
A Tyrrell for Cribbin, (47); K Flynn for Healy, (56); F Dowling for Brophy, (56); J Murray for O’Donoghue, (63); A Masterson for Conway, (68).
TIPPERARY:
E Comerford; A Campbell, J Meagher, E Moloney; C O’Shaughnessy, D Brennan, J Feehan; S O’Brien, L Casey; M Quinlivan, L McGrath, B Fox; P Austin, C Sweeney, J Kennedy.
Subs:
P Maher for Austin, (50); Liam Boland for Casey, (58); P Feehan for J Feehan, (60); Dan O’Meara for Moloney, (64).
Referee:
Noel Mooney (Cavan).
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