Kearns: ‘It’s become a serious year’

TIPPERARY manager Liam Kearns claimed his team were driven to reach the All-Ireland quarter-finals for the first time because they had been given ‘no respect’ for reaching the Munster final.

The Premier County’s thrilling one-point win sets up a last-eight date with Galway next Sunday, after they came from behind to win with two injury-time points from man-of-the-match Conor Sweeney.

Afterwards, the Kerry native revealed his prematch message to his players: ‘We didn’t get any respect for beating Cork. If we’d lost today it would have been very easy for people to say they had one big performance, they beat Cork, but the occasion was too big for them against Kerry.

‘I said to them, “if you want respect and want people to really take you seriously and notice you then you’ve got to perform today and back up the Cork win.”

‘Now it’s become a serious year. They beat Cork for the first time in 72 years and now have become the first team to play in the quarterfinals so it’s huge. They have made their mark,’ claimed Kearns, who also claimed that media pundits would have to revisit their opinion on Munster being the weakest of the four football provinces in the aftermath of Clare’s win over Roscommon earlier in the afternoon.

‘Clare have been down in Division 4 and so have Tipperary, I’m thrilled for both of them, they deserve their day in the sun.

‘Munster must now be considered the strongest province in the country with four teams in the last 10, so maybe the pundits will have to revise their opinions a little bit,’ added Kearns (left)..

Meanwhile, Derry manager Damien Barton, on a night of some contentious refereeing decisions by Marty Duffy, insisted he had no complaints.

‘It was a great game but we are bitterly disappointed because who cares about getting here, the last eight is where you want to be and it is very hard to get back here,’ he said.