Tipperary hurler can't wait to make his first appearance in Croke Park in the blue and gold!

Tipperary defender Craig Morgan says the team is staying grounded after their All-Ireland Senior Hurling Championship quarter-final win over Galway on Saturday.

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Speaking after the game, Morgan emphasised that while the result was important, the focus remains firmly on what lies ahead.

"It doesn't matter. It's another game now. We have to beat who's in front of us and we've got to win."

Reflecting on the match itself, he said the scoreboard didn’t fully reflect the challenge Galway posed.

"I don't think the score was reflected either, though. Galway put it up to us at the very end there and showed. It was just a very tough game, a very physical game."

Morgan praised the team’s readiness and intent from the start.

"No, we were ready for today. We were ready for the minute the ball was thrown in; we were ready to go at it, and we did. We went at it from minute one, so we're happy."

He also highlighted the defensive effort, especially in the closing stages.

"Yeah, when you look at the six backs we have there, last-ditch stuff coming into the last second with brave defending, it was huge. Very encouraging, very charismatic of the boys as well. Showed the character, the whole performance in general."

The win sends Tipperary to Croke Park for their first All-Ireland semi-final since 2019 and Morgan is one of the sizeable contingent to have never run out on the hallowed turf at Jones’s Road.

"Correct. How exciting is it? I'm supposed to be heading up to Croke Park now for an All-Ireland semi-final. We haven't been there since 2019, so a huge shed to look forward to."

Still, Morgan says the team is keeping things in perspective.

"We're just going to take it one game at a time as we have all year, so it's just another game for us, and we're looking forward to it."

He added that other match results on the day weren’t on their radar leading up to the game, despite the furore around the ground after news filtered through about Limerick’s loss to the Dubs.

"I didn't know the result. Obviously, when we had been out or in the dressing room, I obviously didn't know the score, so it doesn't really matter to us anyway. We just wanted to focus on our performance here in our game, and that was to beat Galway and get into a semi-final."

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