REACTION: Woodlock oracle helps Tipp minors to another provincial success

Never was a success underage so gratefully received by Tipperary supporters. The scenes on Monday night were heartening with the partisan Tipp support in Limerick reveling in glee after the final whistle blew, which was mirrored in the celebrations of players and management also.

Tipperary minor hurling manager James Woodlock was in a buoyant mood as he, like so many around the county, felt the keen sting of the Cork loss 24 hours previous in the senior championship, and he lauded his players for their second-half exploits in which they bagged two key goals in what was the winning of the game.

“Yeah I was delighted,” Woodlock said in regard to the clinical second-half performance.

“We were probably the underdogs coming into the game under a small bit of pressure after probably not performing to where we could have all year and we performed tonight.

“Especially in the second half, we owned a lot of the ball but look really happy with the performance.

“I think the Munster championship gave us an opportunity to use our panel of 25, 26 players today after five games which is huge.

“We got the balance of the team right then overall, you can rejig players here and there and they were a fantastic squad.”

Despite the game being neck and neck for large spells and the teams going in level at 0-10 apiece at half-time, Woodlock suggested he was pleased with where they were at the break and knew the conditions would favour them in the second period.

“I probably was to be fair, maybe people didn’t understand when you stand right out in the middle of the field there was a fair blow right down the middle.

“So we were happy with the way it was controlled in the first half, really delighted with our puck outs and the way we got them away, and then we had pick fetchers up front so that gives you a platform then and we worked really hard after that.

“Goals win games and we hadn’t got them in the last couple. We could have had more but that’s the way it goes,” he acknowledged.

The pre-game preparations for this team in the lead up to the final included going for a training session in Holycross Ballycahill GAA Club, where the legendary John Doyle (after whom the new Munster Cup is named) played and it was a perfect moment with Cathal O’Reilly honouring his club man by lifting the cup in Limerick.

“I don’t know if the lads knew why we trained there but we trained there. To be honest we’ve not spoken about it not once as a management team but obviously, it’s in the back of our heads so we’ll talk about it now when we go in.

“It’s special for a Holycross man to lift the cup and he played in the same line as John Doyle as well.

“It’s special for Holycross, they’re a brilliant team coming through and there’s huge work going on and Cathal O’Reilly is a great leader.”

“They won’t die, I guarantee you they won’t die they’ll stay going to the bitter end and even against Clare when we got beat a couple of weeks ago, they stayed going they stayed in the run for us and even tonight I felt in the second half we missed so many chances but the boys stayed going till the very end and I’m just delighted we got there.

“I’ll let them know what they’ve done for Tipperary hurling when I go into the dressing room now,” he finished.