What they said

Kerry manager, Eamonn Fitzmaurice

They [Tipperary] brought what we thought they would bring. They were good running with the ball, good forwards and good individual players. They didn’t overly surprise us with anything they did – they beat Cork on merit. They have a good bit about them, and I don’t think they are finished yet. We’re delighted to have won the game, to have won the Munster championship. To be going through to the quar ter finals, into Croke Park through the front door, it’s the preferred route. We’ve a couple of weeks now again to work on areas from the game today.

Obviously conceding two goals wasn’t great. There was par ts of our performance that were very good, there was parts of the game that we went a bit flat and made mistakes. Brought Tipperary back into the game but look overall, it was a tricky game and there was a lot of talk out there. It can be hard to control that at times. From our point of view, we’re delighted to have won the game with something to spare but at the same time with a lot to work on for the next day.

Defensively, individually a lot of the lads played well. You’d be disappointed with the two goals but ten points is a good score to hold a team to.

Tipperary manager, Liam Kearns

They had a bit too much for us, in a number of areas I suppose, really We struggled at times, but the thing big thing, the gulf between us, was the benches. They were rolling out David Moran and James O’Donoghue, when I saw James O’Donoghue coming on, I said, ‘That’s great now’, ten minutes to go and fellas are getting tired at the back and he snipes three scores.

We had a good star t but we maybe needed to get more than we did. I felt that we conceded a few scores in the first half that we shouldn’t have and then at the other end we missed a few chances that we should have conver ted. Cer tainly, in the second half, I felt that there were another two goals and maybe a few points that were there for us. “Still, you felt that they could go down the other end and get scores if they needed them. As I say, I think that they just had a little bit too much for us.

I’d have to say, they played everybody behind the ball, which surprised us. It’s difficult to score against a massed defence and that’s what it was for a lot of the first half. That did surprise us to be honest, we weren’t expecting that. Maybe they’re thinking fur ther down the line but we were surprised by it.

Ed and John O’Brien Tralee at the Munster Football Finals in Fitzgerald Stadium, Killarney on Sunday Photo by Michelle Cooper Galvin