Goals win games goes the old cliche, and Shane McGrath feels that Tipperary were rewarded for their attacking approach against Kilkenny in Sunday's All-Ireland SHC semi-final.
McGrath's county ran out 4-20 to 0-30 winners over the Cats, with substitute Oisín O'Donoghue scoring a stunning winning goal in the 69th minute.
Tipp made the tactical decision to go for goals, rather than just taking their points whenever possible, and McGrath was impressed with how well that worked as John McGrath, Darragh McCarthy and Jason Forde found the net in the first half for a 3-11 to 0-16 interval lead.
It was a marked contrast to their quarter-final victory over Galway where the Tribesmen asked all the questions of Tipp goalkeeper Rhys Shelly.
Speaking to the RTÉ GAA podcast, McGrath said: "You just couldn't write it, at 13 minutes it was 0-08 to 1-00 and Tipp got that goal against the run of play. I suppose Tipp flipped it, having coughed up five goal chances against Galway in the quarter-final.
"The first goal that Galway got was their sixth goal chance and the worry against Kilkenny would have been if they gave up the same goal chances, it would have been over by half-time. It was totally flipped and it was Tipperary who created five goal chances in the first half and scored three of them.
"Eoin Murphy made an unbelievable save from Jake Morris for there not to be a fourth goal in the first half and that ended up with Tipp getting a point.
"It was just the way they went at it, they went for goals but if they didn’t get the goals, there was only one team in it, in the first 15 or 16 minutes of the game and that was Kilkenny. They were doing all the hurling."
McGrath was also impressed with just how well the inexperienced Premier County players settled in at headquarters, after initially struggling to get their bearings.
"For eight of the starting 15, it was their first time playing for Tipp in Croke Park," he said. "I think it took 15 to 17 minutes to get settled into the game and find their pace.
"If you look at the way TJ Reid hit his frees in that time and Darragh McCarthy hit his into the Hill. TJ has hit hundreds of frees into Hill 16. He knows exactly what the factors are there. For Darragh McCarthy, it's his first time in his life hitting frees into Hill 16, and he misses a couple.
"All those things that our lads did, take probably 16 or 17 minutes just to get settled into the game.
"When they did find a bit of confidence, they got used to the surroundings and the breeze and everything, they settled in very well."
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Watch the Tailteann Cup final, Limerick v Kildare, on Saturday from 2.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow a live blog on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentary on Sunday Sport on RTÉ Radio 1
Watch the All-Ireland Football Championship semi-finals with RTÉ Sport. Kerry v Tyrone on Saturday from 4.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player and Meath v Donegal on Sunday from 3.30pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player. Follow live blogs on rte.ie/sport and the RTÉ News app. Listen to commentaries on RTÉ Radio 1. Watch highlights on The Sunday Game at 10.15pm on RTÉ2 and RTÉ Player
