'A lot of hurling to be played yet' says Tipp boss Woodlock after loss to Clare in opener

After the game in rain soaked Shannon last Tuesday week, Tipp boss James Woodlock reflected on his sides poor start in the first half which proved costly by the final whistle.

“Disappointing start yeah,” he admitted.

“ Clare were always going to come back at us hard after last year and we’re just bitterly disappointed with our performance in the first half.

“I’m a firm believer that the best team always wins and Clare were the better team tonight and we can have absolutely no complaints, but we are disappointed with the way we played.

“But the one thing I will say about this championship is that it’s going to be a marathon, not a sprint.

“This is only the first game and with three to go I’m still happy and convinced that the group we have inside can compete for a Munster title.”

Tough conditions in Clare and playing against a really strong opposition team on the team’s debut a this level made it a really testing evening, and the work ons will be simple to apply to rectify the mistakes made on the night, accoring to the Drom & Inch native.

“One thing we have to understand is that not one of those players that took to the field tonight for Tipperary started in last year’s championship.

“Clare are probably where we were last year and that’s huge, but our lads got that experience tonight and we can build on that from here on in.

“I would say that we just didn’t work hard enough, especially in the first half.

“Puckouts hurt us a bit and we didn’t get to the breaking ball.

“But all the same, the things that didn’t go right for us out there tonight are well fixable and I think we still have a big year ahead, but tonight was a huge learning curve for each and every one of the players.
“I think we need to see the values we instill in the team; that honesty, desire, passion, and belief, probably nothing to do with our hurling ability.

“We need to win the dirty ball and we didn’t do that tonight.

“I went in at half time and I was happy enough. They had all the hurling done and despite us being down eight points, we have come back from those situations before. We had a few opportunities in the second half and if we had gotten that goal in the second half before they scored their second it would have been a huge score for us.

The seven point defeat now has Tipperary on the back foot immediately in this year’s championship, and with a tough away trip to face Cork in Pairc Úi Chaoimh the next challenge, things aren’t getting easier for Woodlock and his team.

However, Woodlock was bullish about his team’s prospects and he expects to see a bounce from his players and highlighted that there is plenty of time for his team to improve going into the remaining games.

“Look, we are where we are and we’ll go again in two weeks’ time. There are no medals being handed out tonight.

“There’s a lot of hurling to be played yet,” he finished.