Sheedy will pick captain after decider
TIPPERARY manager Liam Sheedy said he will wait until after the final of the Co-Op Superstores Munster hurling before deciding on a captain to lead the Premier County in his second term in charge.
Sheedy said he is finding the Munster league very useful as he tries out players ahead of the start of the Allianz League.
‘We haven’t decided on a captain yet for the year but we will be doing that ahead of the National League.
‘This is a good competition,’ he said after their win over Kerry in McDonagh Park in Nenagh. ‘We haven’t entered in the last two years but certainly I am delighted we are in it this year.
‘We are getting a good mix of new lads coming in and getting their chance and some other guys that are there a while getting their chance.
‘Overall it is a worthwhile exercise, we won our two games and we are in the final.
‘We get to test ourselves again next weekend against top class opposition two weeks before we start a national league campaign. That’s very positive from our point of view.’
There wasn’t a lot between the sides for most of the opening half but then Tipperary hit a purple patch and killed off a gutsy Kerry team with 3-5 in an eleven minute spell before the break.
Goals from Jason Forde and Noel McGrath, either side of an effort from last year’s impressive Under-21 Mark Kehoe, did the damage as Tipp went in leading by 3-14 to 0-7 having played with the breeze.
McGrath’s effort was superb and had the crowd of 1,186 in raptures when he met a cross from Forde first time and bured it in the net.
Patrick ‘Bonner’ Maher became the sixth Tipp forward to score when he found the net three minutes after the restart as they cruised to victory against a gutsy Kerry side who scored a fine goal from the impressive Shane Conway in the closing stages.
‘Kerry are a team I have huge admiration for, they are working off a very small base,’ added Sheedy.
‘Very spirited in their hurling. Some really good fielders off the ball. Especially in the second half the subs took some savage scores.
‘We went 0-8 to 0-2 up and we said we would step on the gas here. Kerry came back to 0-9 to 0-6 and troubled us but we had a rich period with that 15 minutes before half-time and ultimately that was the difference in the game.
‘It was nip and tuck in that second half but we did the damage when we were on in that 15 minutes in the first half, it was very good. We are very pleased,’ added Sheedy. TIPPERARY: B Hogan; D Maher (C Barrett 48), Padraic Maher, K O’Dwyer; A Flynn, S Kennedy (R Byrne 55), B Heffernan (T Fox 63); M Breen, W Connors; D McCormack, N McGrath (M McCarthy 63), Patrick Maher; M Kehoe (C Darcy 52), J Forde, J Morris. Scorers: J Forde 1-5 (0-2f, 0-1 ’65), N McGrath 1-4, M Kehoe 1-3, Patrick Maher 1-0, J Morris 0-3, M Breen 0-1, W Connors 0-1, D McCormack 0-1, C Darcy 0-1, D Maher 0-1. KERRY: J B O’Halloran; E Leen (Sean Weir 54), J O’Connor (B Murphy 42), J Buckley; J Diggins, M Boyle, T O’Connor; D Griffin, N O’Mahony (M Leane 55); M O’Leary, S Conway, F MacKessy (P Boyle 42); J Goulding, B Barrett, M Slattery (J Conway 44). Scorers: B Barrett 0-5 (0-4f), S Conway 1-2, M O’Leary 0-3, J Goulding 0-2, N O’Mahony 0-1, P Boyle 0-1. Referee: Nathan Wall (Cork).