Burke looking to build on quarter final progress
By Daire Walsh
Tipperary manager Ed Burke acknowledged Meath were full value for a victory in their All-Ireland senior football championship quarter-final on Sunday evening.
With Vikki Wall and Niamh Gallogly rattling the net in fine style for their opponents, Tipperary were facing into a 13-point deficit at the midway stage in the action. The Premier women battled admirably on the resumption with Cahir’s Aishling Moloney bagging a late three-pointer of her own, but Meath convincingly advanced to a forthcoming last-four clash against defending champions Kerry.
“Meath came out of the blocks far quicker in the first half,” Burke admitted.
“Physically, they were just far stronger, and they dominated us. For ten minutes there they scored 2-5 and that’s the game in a nutshell.
“The second half in fairness, we came out and we battled well. We gave a bit of a better account of ourselves.
“Look, Meath are deserving winners. They had that ten minute period. We got on the ball; they hounded us, and they got turnovers.
“Even from the first turnover there on the end line, Vikki (Wall) got an unbelievable goal, and they punished us from there.
“It was hard to come back from, but we could have wilted in the second half. We lost the second half by a point. We came out and showed what we can do, but we’ve got to improve to try and go further.”
Expanding on the latter point, Burke admitted Tipperary need to display greater consistency if they have designs on featuring at the business end of the All-Ireland senior football championship on a more regular basis.
They won’t return to competitive fare until next January, but the Moyle Rovers clubman is adamant his squad will strive to make improvements in the years to come.
“We’ve got to keep going,” he stressed.
“We’ve got to show and say that we want to be at this level and play at this level the whole time. To try and improve. That is what we will do. We’ll come back and we’ll go again.
“We’ve got to build a consistency. When you’re playing top level football, you can’t afford to have bad ten or fifteen minute spells and that is what is killing us. We’ve got to learn from that, and we’ve got to improve on it.”