We were way better than them; their touch was shocking and they were set up so negatively, their forwards hadnāt a hope. We dominated their puckout and although we didnāt win many of ours clean, we got more than them and if you have that much more possession, with the forwards we have, we were always going to win.
I thought Adams struggled, thought it was strange that he was chosen to start, thought it was strange ALTC wasnāt even brought off the bench but Grimes did well when he came in. I thought Fanning did well. Nothing there that convinced me Hayes isnāt a centre-back. Not perfect, but heās a natural defender.
Lynch was good in flashes, but can do so much moreā¦ I actually thought Morrissey can offer a lot more too and he scored 1-4 from play. Nash looked dangerous when he got the ball in hand, was fouled a good few times. A real threat. Same with Casey when it opened up in the second half.
Hanleyās a pure workhorse, a real asset. Malachy was very good first half, quieter second, still would prefer him somewhere where he can use his aerial ability. Ronan Lynch did well. A lot of the subs did well- Grimes & Boylan in particular and I was surprised that Boylan was first sub. Ahern got himself a nice point too.
I thought Barry Murphy had a fine game; the most unheralded of the starting forwards but a good player for Doon and he did a good job at centre-forward I thought. Iād still like to see Colin Ryan in as a half-forward just as another puckout option.
I donāt know how Tipp were so bad. I know their minor team three years ago was one of the worst Iāve ever seen, but they followed that up with two very good minor teams and youād have thought that would have shone through. They had one little purple patch but we always looked slicker, more skilful as well as being more up for it which was surprising.
Not a perfect performance by any means, lots to work on, but weāve laid down a marker. Itāll take a good team to beat us. Winners of Cork/Waterford will very likely be a good team.
