Tipperary captain Tommy Dunne has admitted that his All Ireland-winning team were determined to live up to their potential. He said that they had "underperformed on so many big days" and paid tribute to his team's work ethic. "Mark O'Leary got a great goal in the first half and worked really hard all day. I suppose the work rate is the biggest thing that this team aspires to. We work really hard for each other and that's what you need to do to win All Irelands," he said.
Dunne admitted that bitter experience had taught Tipp that it is acceptable to sacrifice their artistry sometimes in order to clinch the big wins. "We've learned the hard way that we have to work hard in order to win games. Hurling on its own is sometimes secondary, but you just need to work so hard and show great courage and commitment out there," he said.
Tipperary led from the outset but a determined Galway never allowed them to pull away. Despite playing with a strong breeze in the first half, they went into the break with just a slender two-point lead. However, Dunne was more concerned that Galway had scored the last four points before half time. "We were hurling well for patches in the first half but Galway fought back and scored four unanswered points, and we were a little bit worried about that. I suppose the half time break gave us a chance to gather ourselves and we made a good start to the second half after that," said Dunne.
The Toomevara man praised under pressure Tipp manager Nicky English. "I know he was feeling the pinch – when Tipperary get to All Ireland finals, their supporters expect them to win, as do the Galway supporters. I'm delighted for him that it worked out. He has made tremendous progress with this team since he took over in 1999, and changed the team completely around, bringing in players that a lot of people hadn't heard of. I won't say he turned them into great players because they were good players anyway, but he just made us believe in ourselves much more than we used to. I'm just delighted for him today," he said.
Dunne feels that the luck was with Tipperary today and hailed a great Galway performance. "Galway came at us, as we knew they would. They're a great team – we knew after watching them against Kilkenny that they were going to be a serious outfit to beat. They got a great goal in the second half to come back within a point of us, and there were a couple of goalmouth incidents which could have otherwise gone over the line. I suppose we had a bit of luck on the day and we're grateful for that," he said.
Filed by Greg McKevitt
